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Extended analyses of the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway: Robustness and oscillatory behaviour
Author(s) -
Wawra Christian,
Kühl Michael,
Kestler Hans A.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2007.07.043
Subject(s) - wnt signaling pathway , robustness (evolution) , somitogenesis , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , signal transduction , genetics , embryogenesis , somite , gene , embryo
The Wnt/β‐catenin signalling pathway is evolutionarily conserved across many species and plays important roles during embryogenesis. The Lee–Heinrich model (to recognize the contributions of R. Heinrich we will refer to the work proposed by Lee et al. [Lee, E., Salic, A., Krüger, R., Heinrich, R., Kirschner, M.W. (2003) The roles of APC and axin derived from experimental and theoretical analysis of the Wnt pathway. PloS Biol. 1, 116–132] as the Lee–Heinrich model) describes this pathway by use of coupled ordinary differential equations. Here, we extend this model by introducing negative feedback loops of the pathway using time‐delay differential equations. Single‐ and multiple‐parameter perturbations suggest a very robust behaviour of this pathway that can also demonstrate oscillatory behaviour. These findings are of biological significance as Wnt pathway components show oscillations during vertebrate somitogenesis.