French flag tracking by morphogenetic simulation under developmental constraints

Abstract

Below the influence of the mechanical cues and genetic expression, constraints underlying the developmental process play a key role in forms' emergence. Theses constraints lead to cells' differentiation and sometimes determine the directions of cells growth. To better understand these phenomena, we present in this paper our work focused primarily on a development of a mathematical model. A one which takes into account the co-evolution of cellular dynamics with it's environment. To study the influence of the developmental constraints, we have developed algorithms to make and explore a base of genomes. The purpose of this exploration is first to check conditions under which specific genes are activated. Then, this exploration allows us to follow the conditions of emergence of some patterns that lead to a specific shape. From our model, we found a genome that can generate the French flag. With this French flag pattern and its genome starting, we addressed the following question: is there another genome in the simulated base that achieves the same shape, i.e. the French flag pattern? © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.