IGEM:UNAM/2008/TuringPatterns
Introduction
We are trying to artificially reproduce Turing patterns; a kind of patterns that could be generated from a homogeneous media, that have been studied extensively, reproduced chemically and that are thought to have an important role in some process of morphogenesis. Apparently some naturally occurring patterns seem to match and resemble Turing patterns, such as those seen in the organization of trychomes in Arabidopsis thaliana’s leafs or the jaguar spots, yet it’s still controversial whether or not they are actually Turing patterns as the underlying genetic network is not completely understood. While we could analyze variation in naturally occurring patterns and dwell into the genetics of an organism (basically, hammering the organism by knocking out genes), there is a different approach to the problem. Building synthetic networks that produce patterns in organisms that previously didn’t have them might to be an insightful and refreshing alternative.
