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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 21, 2025

Temporal Ordering of Dynamic Expression Data from Detailed Spatial Expression Maps

Temporal Ordering of Dynamic Expression Data from Detailed Spatial Expression Maps

Published on: February 9, 2017

Positional information encoded in the dynamic differences between neighboring oscillators during vertebrate

Marcelo Boareto¹, Tomas Tomka², Dagmar Iber¹

¹Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE), ETH Zurich, Mattenstrasse 26, 4058 Basel, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Mattenstrasse 26, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.

Cells & Development

|September 5, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Positional information for vertebrate embryo segmentation is encoded in neighboring molecular oscillator differences, not signaling gradients. This novel mechanism explains somite formation and scaling.

Keywords:

Phase difference Quantitative model Somitogenesis

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Area of Science:

Developmental Biology
Systems Biology
Molecular Biology

Background:

Somite formation in vertebrate embryos is a key developmental process.
The established clock-and-wavefront model explains somite segmentation using molecular oscillators and signaling gradients.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose and validate a new model for somite segmentation.
To investigate how positional information is encoded during embryonic development.
To explain somite scaling mechanisms.

Main Methods:

Developing a theoretical framework based on neighboring oscillator differences.
Quantitatively fitting experimental data from in vivo and ex vivo mouse segmentation.
Analyzing the role of oscillator amplitude and period in segmentation.

Main Results:

Positional information is encoded in the differences between neighboring molecular oscillators.
Oscillator amplitude and period increase over time, leading to increasing differences.
Segmentation initiates when these differences surpass a specific threshold.
The model successfully explains experimental data and proposes somite scaling mechanisms.

Conclusions:

A novel mechanism for spatial pattern formation relies on local interactions of dynamic molecular oscillators.
This oscillator-difference model challenges the traditional clock-and-wavefront framework.
The findings provide new insights into the fundamental processes of embryonic segmentation.