User:Federico Castro M/Notebook/Spatial Patterns

The progress of this project is temporarially halted, still this might be developed for the iGEM 2009 by the Mexican team

Abstract

I intend to artificially reproduce Turing patterns; a kind of patterns that are thought to have an important role in some process of morphogenesis.

Some naturally occurring patterns seem to match and resemble Turing patterns, such as those seen in the organization of trichomes in Arabidopsis thaliana’s leafs or the jaguar spots, yet it’s still controversial whether or not they are actually that kind of patterns for the genetic network that underlies its formation is unknown.

While I could analyze the variation in naturally occurring patterns and dwell into the genetics of an organism (basically, hammering the organism by disrupting and knocking out genes), a different approach to the problem; the construction of synthetic networks that produce patterns in organisms that previously didn’t have them, might to be an insightful and refreshing alternative.

A synthetic devise may not resemble the natural one and might pale in comparison, yet its successful construction would allow me to establish whether or not the basic elements necessary for the process are complete and well understood and even reveal what would be needed for cells to generate complex patterns.

Notes

• This project is particularly associated with the iGEM project of the UNAM-IPN iGEM team. This Notebook keeps record of all activities (not only lab activities) related with this project.
• This Notebook replace and continue with the line of research of an older project. Yet the focus of this new project is slightly different.

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