Abdoulaye Sarr, Anya Désilles, Alexandra Fronville and Vincent Rodin.
A viability approach for robustness measurement, organizational autopoiesis
and cell turnover in a multicellular system.
Journal of Computational Biology, Mary Ann Liebert, 23(4):256-269, April 2016.
Abstract:
In this article, we use the potential of computational biology to highlight
the key role of cell apoptosis for studying some tissue's properties through
in silico experiments of morphogenesis.
Our morphogenesis model is a new approach focusing on the deterministic
program within cells that controls their placement and their differentiation
at the beginning of the embryogenesis.
Indeed, when the tissue is made by just a few pair of cells, we consider that
cellular mechanisms are related neither to the influence of mechanical forces
nor to the spread of chemicals.
Dynamics are based on spatial and logical choices, the other factors being
involved when the tissue contains a large number of cells.
We had established a mathematical formulation of such a model and had
enlightened the link between phenotype (cell placement and cell
differentiation) and genotype (cell program) at the early embryogenesis.
Indeed, that work allowed for generating any early tissue and the associated
program that designs it.
We propose now to study and assess some properties of these tissues for
further selection and classification purposes.
More precisely, we present in this article novel methods to measure tissue
robustness based on the backward morphogenesis of our model.
We also show some implementations of their self-maintenance properties,
on the one hand to deal with environment disturbances through autopoiesis
and on the other hand to achieve a dynamical steady state which ensures
tissue renewal.
Keywords:
Apoptosis, autopoiesis, computational biology, homeostasis, morphogenesis,
robustness, viability theory.
[
doi:10.1089/cmb.2015.0187]
[Sarr16c.pdf]