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Signal Processing during Developmental Multicellular Patterning
Author(s) -
Giurumescu Claudiu A.,
Asthagiri Anand R.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
biotechnology progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.572
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6033
pISSN - 8756-7938
DOI - 10.1021/bp070127t
Subject(s) - multicellular organism , crosstalk , biology , extracellular , neuroscience , microbiology and biotechnology , cell , genetics , physics , optics
Abstract Developing design strategies for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is limited by our nascent understanding of how cell populations “self‐organize” into multicellular structures on synthetic scaffolds. Mechanistic insights can be gleaned from the quantitative analysis of biomolecular signals that drive multicellular patterning during the natural processes of embryonic and adult development. This review describes three critical layers of signal processing that govern multicellular patterning: spatiotemporal presentation of extracellular cues, intracellular signaling networks that mediate crosstalk among extracellular cues, and finally, intranuclear signal integration at the level of transcriptional regulation. At every level in this hierarchy, the quantitative attributes of signals have a profound impact on patterning. We discuss how experiments and mathematical models are being used to uncover these quantitative features and their impact on multicellular phenotype.