A chemical flow system mimics waves of gene expression during segmentation

The early vertebrate developmental process of somitogenesis involves bands of gene expression that form periodically at the posterior end of the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) and traverse it with decreasing width and velocity. We have constructed a chemical flow system that, based on the novel flow-distributed oscillator (FDO) mechanism of wave pattern formation, reproduces key physical features of the PSM and observe concentration waves having similar spatio-temporal behavior. This suggests that the gene expression waves can be understood qualitatively in terms of phase dynamics in an open flow of a self-oscillating medium and that chemical flow systems can be used to mimic and model biological pattern formation during axial growth. In fact, expressions for wavelength and wave velocity derived from phase dynamics are found to be in quantitative agreement with measurements from both the biological and the chemical systems. This indicates that they, despite their significant differences, have common dynamics.