@article{90346,
  keywords = {Animals, cell cycle, Models, Biological, Calcium, Xenopus laevis, Embryo, Nonmammalian, Cell Division, Fertilization, Calcium Signaling},
  author = {Scott McIsaac and Kerwyn Casey Huang and Anirvan Sengupta and Ned Wingreen},
  title = {Does the potential for chaos constrain the embryonic cell-cycle oscillator?},
  abstract = { Although many of the core components of the embryonic cell-cycle network have been elucidated, the question of how embryos achieve robust, synchronous cellular divisions post-fertilization remains unexplored. What are the different schemes that could be implemented by the embryo to achieve synchronization? By extending a cell-cycle model previously developed for embryos of the frog Xenopus laevis to include the spatial dimensions of the embryo, we establish a novel role for the rapid, fertilization-initiated calcium wave that triggers cell-cycle oscillations. Specifically, in our simulations a fast calcium wave results in synchronized cell cycles, while a slow wave results in full-blown spatio-temporal chaos. We show that such chaos would ultimately lead to an unpredictable patchwork of cell divisions across the embryo. Given this potential for chaos, our results indicate a novel design principle whereby the fast calcium-wave trigger following embryo fertilization synchronizes cell divisions. },
  year = {2011},
  journal = {PLoS Comput Biol},
  volume = {7},
  pages = {e1002109},
  month = {07/2011},
  issn = {1553-7358},
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002109},
  language = {eng},
}