Chalmers Conferences, 9th European Conference on Mathematical and Theoretical Biology

On the understanding of avian photoreceptor mosaics development
HARALAMPOS HATZIKIROU

Last modified: 2014-06-09

Abstract


Bird retina development is a great mystery yet to be solved. A central part of the retina is the photoreceptor layer which allows for the sampling of light. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the exact developmental mechanisms that dictate photoreceptor mosaic pattern formation. Here, we analyze the spatial correlations of the photoreceptor patterns and we discover a scale invariance of the statistics against variations of the photoreceptor density. In combination with the novel application of fluctuation solution theory in biological problems, we reveal features of photoreceptor mosaics during avian embryonic phase, in terms of photoreceptor interaction range and spatial organization. Interestingly, we conclude that the identified scale invariance contributes to the robustness of the photoreceptor mosaic pattern in terms of functionality and developmental dynamics.


Keywords


retina plasticity