Alicea Bradly, Portegys Thomas E, Gordon Diana, Gordon Richard
Orthogonal Research and Education Laboratory, 1408 Rosewood Drive, Champaign, IL, 61821, USA.
LaSalle, IL, USA.
Biosystems. 2018 Nov;173:256-265. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2018.10.005. Epub 2018 Oct 25.
We can improve our understanding of biological processes through the use of computational and mathematical modeling. One such morphogenetic process (ommatidia formation in the Drosophila eye imaginal disc) provides us with an opportunity to demonstrate the power of this approach. We use a high-resolution image that catches the spatially- and temporally-dependent process of ommatidia formation in the act. This image is converted to quantitative measures and models that provide us with new information about the dynamics and geometry of this process. We approach this by addressing four computational hypotheses, and provide a publicly-available repository containing data and images for further analysis. Potential spatial patterns in the morphogenetic furrow and ommatidia are summarized, while the ommatidia cells are projected to a spherical map in order to identify higher-level spatiotemporal features. In the conclusion, we discuss the implications of our approach and findings for developmental complexity and biological theory.
我们可以通过使用计算和数学建模来增进对生物过程的理解。一种这样的形态发生过程（果蝇眼成虫盘上小眼的形成）为我们提供了一个展示这种方法威力的机会。我们使用一张高分辨率图像，该图像捕捉到了小眼形成过程中空间和时间依赖性的实际情况。这张图像被转换为定量测量和模型，为我们提供了有关该过程动态和几何结构的新信息。我们通过处理四个计算假设来实现这一点，并提供一个包含数据和图像以供进一步分析的公共存储库。总结了形态发生沟和小眼中潜在的空间模式，同时将小眼细胞投影到一个球形图上，以识别更高层次的时空特征。在结论部分，我们讨论了我们的方法和发现对发育复杂性和生物学理论的影响。
