title: Persistence, period and precision of autonomous cellular oscillators from the zebrafish segmentation clock.
abstract: In vertebrate development, the sequential and rhythmic segmentation of the body axis is regulated by a "segmentation clock". This clock is comprised of a population of coordinated oscillating cells that together produce rhythmic gene expression patterns in the embryo. Whether individual cells autonomously maintain oscillations, or whether oscillations depend on signals from neighboring cells is unknown. Using a transgenic zebrafish reporter line for the cyclic transcription factor Her1, we recorded single tailbud cells in vitro. We demonstrate that individual cells can behave as autonomous cellular oscillators. We described the observed variability in cell behavior using a theory of generic oscillators with correlated noise. Single cells have longer periods and lower precision than the tissue, highlighting the role of collective processes in the segmentation clock. Our work reveals a population of cells from the zebrafish segmentation clock that behave as self-sustained, autonomous oscillators with distinctive noisy dynamics.
authors.affiliation: MRC-National Institute for Medical Research, London, United Kingdom.|Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexis B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, FCEyN UBA and IFIBA, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Iván M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Lengyel
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Jörg
authors.affiliation: MRC-National Institute for Medical Research, London, United Kingdom.|Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Valentin
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4731-9185
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jülicher
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, FCEyN UBA and IFIBA, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Luis G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.affiliation: MRC-National Institute for Medical Research, London, United Kingdom.|Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany.|Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Andrew C
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3015-3978
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Oates
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified / Q000196:embryology; D019677:Artificial Gene Fusion; D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D001683:Biological Clocks; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology*; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis
chemical_list: D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins; C491619:her1 protein, zebrafish
keywords: biological clock; computational biology; developmental biology; gene expression noise; oscillator; somitogenesis; stem cells; systems biology; theoretical modelling; timelapse imaging; zebrafish