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Hair morphogenesis inAcetabularia mediterranea: Temperature-dependent spacing and models of morphogen waves

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Summary

Whorls of sterile hairs inA. mediterranea show, at the moment of first appearance of hair initials, a spacing independent of number of hairs in the whorl but dependent on temperature. By changing the temperature at various times before appearance of hair initials, the pattern-forming event can be located at about 3–4 hours before initials become visible.

The temperature dependence of spacing is like that of a chemical rate parameter: In (spacing)versus 1/T is linear. This suggests that the spacing is controlled by kinetic rather than structural factors, and correlates well with reaction-diffusion theory.

Mathematical analysis and computer simulation have been used to show that the observed sequence of tip-flattening followed by whorl initiation can be interpreted in terms of published models for generation of “dissipative structures” by reaction and diffusion, and that at least two sequential processes must occur, the first of which shifts growth activity from extremity to circumference of the growing tip, permitting the second to operate around the circumference.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of British Columbia, 2075 Wesbrook Place, V6T 1W5, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

    Lionel G. Harrison, J. Snell, R. Verdi, D. E. Vogt & G. D. Zeiss

  2. Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

    Beverley R. Green

Authors
  1. Lionel G. Harrison
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  2. J. Snell
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  3. R. Verdi
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  4. D. E. Vogt
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  5. G. D. Zeiss
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  6. Beverley R. Green
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Additional information

Submitted to workshop on Morphogenesis inAcetabularia, Berlin (West), September 1980.

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Harrison, L.G., Snell, J., Verdi, R. et al. Hair morphogenesis inAcetabularia mediterranea: Temperature-dependent spacing and models of morphogen waves. Protoplasma 106, 211–221 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01275553

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01275553

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