Skip to main content

Web Content Display Web Content Display

News

Breadcrumb Breadcrumb

Web Content Display Web Content Display

Article on JU research published in Physical Review Letters

Article on JU research published in Physical Review Letters

Drs Maciej Majka, Richard Ho (currently at the University of Oslo), and Marcin Zagórski published a paper in Physical Review Letters in which they investigated the dynamics of gene expression domains in systems with gene-gene interactions and diffusion of signalling molecules. In the course of development of living organisms, the properly formed domains result in the development of various types of tissues and body parts.

In their paper "Stability of Pattern Formation in Systems with Dynamic Source Regions", researchers from the JU Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science studied a model in which the dynamics of two domains producing signalling molecules and activated by these molecules was described by a reaction-diffusion equation with a term representing interaction between these domains. Thanks to identifying a new law describing the number of particles reaching the front of the activated domain, Dr Maciej Majka analytically calculated the velocity of these domains and the conditions ensuring the creation of a stable gene expression pattern.

‘What is interesting is that a perfect stability, where both domains remain at rest, is very rare, whereas the situation in which two domains keep a certain distance between them, and at the same time shift in a coordinated fashion, is far more frequent. The described stability also has its limits and if the force of gene-gene interactions is lower than a certain threshold value, the pattern of domains will not form at all. This behaviour is characteristic of a phase transition. Possible types of regulatory connections defining interactions between the domains were also identified in the paper, together with the extent to which they lead to the expansion, shrinking, collapse, or stability of the emerging domains’, the Faculty website reports.      

The obtained results were quantitatively related to the formation of gene expression domains in a fruit fly with potential implications for the pattern specification in the developing spinal cord and formation of limbs in vertebrates. The proposed classification of regulatory mechanisms can be applied to a wider class of biological systems.

Recommended
Scientists continue to increase their knowledge of virus biology

Scientists continue to increase their knowledge of virus biology

Project co-authored by JU MC student awarded in the Direction: Space competition

Project co-authored by JU MC student awarded in the Direction: Space competition

Ambassador of Iceland visits the Jagiellonian University

Ambassador of Iceland visits the Jagiellonian University

Between neurodiversity and therapy

Between neurodiversity and therapy