Simulated Morphogenesis of Developmental Folds

Troy Shinbrot
Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Rutgers University
Piscataway, NJ 08854
(732) 445-6710
shinbrot@rci.rutgers.edu

This page presents supplemental quicktime movies from simulations that model individual cells as spherical particles than can migrate, interact, divide and differentiate. We show 2D simulations of the evolution of a progenitor monolayer of spherical cells that reproduce, leading either to more progenitors (blue) or to differentiated daughters (red). We see from these movies that folds can spontaneously appear, with lengths that depend on the ratio of rates of production of progenitors to daughters, P/Q. All parameters in these movies are identical except for the progenitory reproductive rate, which grows by a factor of 4 from the first movie to the last. Reproduction of the progenitor layer is evident as the number of blue cells doubles - e.g. in Movie 1, this occurs abruptly halfway through the movie and again at the end of the movie; in Movie 4, progenitor reproduction occurs 4 times in the course of the movie.

Movie 1 - Least Folding: Progenitor:Daughter ratio, P/Q = 1/8	Movie 2 - Progenitor:Daughter ratio, P/Q = 1/6
Movie 3 - Progenitor:Daughter ratio, P/Q = 1/4	Movie 4 - Most Folding: Progenitor:Daughter ratio, P/Q = 1/2