Stability of pattern formation in systems with dynamic source regions

Abstract

We explain the principles of gene expression pattern stabilization in systems of interacting, diffusible morphogens, with dynamically established source regions. Using a reaction-diffusion model with step-function production term, we identify the phase transition between low-precision indeterminate patterning and the phase in which a traveling, well-defined contact zone between two domains is formed. Our model analytically explains single- and two-gene domain dynamics and provides pattern stability conditions for all possible two-gene regulatory network motifs.