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. 2021 Apr;336(3):300-314.
doi: 10.1002/jez.b.22946. Epub 2020 May 17.

Dynamical patterning modules and network motifs as joint determinants of development: Lessons from an aggregative bacterium

Alejandra Guzmán-Herrera  1   2 , Juan A Arias Del Angel  3   4   5 , Natsuko Rivera-Yoshida  1 , Mariana Benítez  3   4 , Alessio Franci  1
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Dynamical patterning modules and network motifs as joint determinants of development: Lessons from an aggregative bacterium

Alejandra Guzmán-Herrera et al. J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Development and evolution are dynamical processes under the continuous control of organismic and environmental factors. Generic physical processes, associated with biological materials and certain genes or molecules, provide a morphological template for the evolution and development of organism forms. Generic dynamical behaviors, associated with recurring network motifs, provide a temporal template for the regulation and coordination of biological processes. The role of generic physical processes and their associated molecules in development is the topic of the dynamical patterning module (DPM) framework. The role of generic dynamical behaviors in biological regulation is studied via the identification of the associated network motifs (NMs). We propose a joint DPM-NM perspective on the emergence and regulation of multicellularity focusing on a multicellular aggregative bacterium, Myxococcus xanthus. Understanding M. xanthus development as a dynamical process embedded in a physical substrate provides novel insights into the interaction between developmental regulatory networks and generic physical processes in the evolutionary transition to multicellularity.

Keywords: Myxococcus xanthus; evolutionary-developmental biology; morphogenesis; multicellularity; systems biology.

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