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Biological Development of Cell Patterns: Characterizing the Space of Cell Chemistry Genetic Regulatory Networks

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Advances in Artificial Life (ECAL 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3630))

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Abstract

Genetic regulatory networks (GRNs) control gene expression and are responsible for establishing the regular cellular patterns that constitute an organism. This paper introduces a model of biological development that generates cellular patterns via chemical interactions. GRNs for protein expression are generated and evaluated for their effectiveness in constructing 2D patterns of cells such as borders, patches, and mosaics. Three types of searches were performed: (a) a Monte Carlo search of the GRN space using a utility function based on spatial interestingness; (b) a hill climbing search to identify GRNs that solve specific pattern problems; (c) a search for combinatorial codes that solve difficult target patterns by running multiple disjoint GRNs in parallel. We show that simple biologically realistic GRNs can construct many complex cellular patterns. Our model provides an avenue to explore the evolution of complex GRNs that drive development.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Nicholas Flann, Jing Hu, Mayank Bansal & Vinay Patel

  2. Biology Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Greg Podgorski

Authors
  1. Nicholas Flann
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  2. Jing Hu
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  3. Mayank Bansal
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  4. Vinay Patel
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  5. Greg Podgorski
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Natural Computation Group, University of Kent, CT2 7NF, Canterbury, UK

    Mathieu S. Capcarrère

  2. Computing Laboratory and Centre for BioMedical Informatics, University of Kent, CT2 7NF, Canterbury, UK

    Alex A. Freitas

  3. Computer Science Department, University College London, London, UK

    Peter J. Bentley

  4. Computing Laboratory, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Colin G. Johnson

  5. Department of Electronics, University of York, YO10 5DD, Heslington, York, UK

    Jon Timmis

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Flann, N., Hu, J., Bansal, M., Patel, V., Podgorski, G. (2005). Biological Development of Cell Patterns: Characterizing the Space of Cell Chemistry Genetic Regulatory Networks. In: Capcarrère, M.S., Freitas, A.A., Bentley, P.J., Johnson, C.G., Timmis, J. (eds) Advances in Artificial Life. ECAL 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3630. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11553090_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11553090_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-28848-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31816-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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