Spatio-temporal Pattern Formation due to Host-Circuit Interplay in Gene Expression Dynamics

Abstract

Biological systems are majorly dependent on their property of bistability in order to exhibit nongenetic heterogeneity in terms of cellular morphology and physiology. Spatial patterns of phenotypically heterogeneous cells, arising due to underlying bistability, may play significant role in phenomena like biofilm development, adaptation, cell motility etc. While nonlinear positive feedback regulation, like cooperative heterodimer formation are the usual reason behind bistability, similar dynamics can also occur as a consequence of host-circuit interaction. In this paper, we have investigated the pattern formation by a motif with non-cooperative positive feedback, that imposes a metabolic burden on its host due to its expression. In a cellular array set inside diffusible environment, we investigate spatio-temporal diffusion in one dimension as well as in two dimension in the context of various initial conditions respectively. Moreover, the number of cells exhibiting the same steady state, as well as their spatial distribution has been quantified in terms of connected component analysis. The effect of diffusion coefficient variation has been studied in terms of stability of related states and time evolution of patterns.