Robust stochastic Turing patterns in the development of a one-dimensional cyanobacterial organism

Francesca Di Patti, Laura Lavacchi, Rinat Arbel-Goren, Leora Schein-Lubomirsky, Duccio Fanelli, Joel Stavans

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Under nitrogen deprivation, the one-dimensional cyanobacterial organism Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 develops patterns of single, nitrogen-fixing cells separated by nearly regular intervals of photosynthetic vegetative cells. We study a minimal, stochastic model of developmental patterns in Anabaena that includes a nondiffusing activator, two diffusing inhibitor morphogens, demographic fluctuations in the number of morphogen molecules, and filament growth. By tracking developing filaments, we provide experimental evidence for different spatiotemporal roles of the two inhibitors during pattern maintenance and for small molecular copy numbers, justifying a stochastic approach. In the deterministic limit, the model yields Turing patterns within a region of parameter space that shrinks markedly as the inhibitor diffusivities become equal. Transient, noise-driven, stochastic Turing patterns are produced outside this region, which can then be fixed by downstream genetic commitment pathways, dramatically enhancing the robustness of pattern formation, also in the biologically relevant situation in which the inhibitors' diffusivities may be comparable.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2004877
Number of pages25
JournalPLoS Biology
Volume16
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 4 May 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Immunology and Microbiology
  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Neuroscience
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

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