Improving the understanding of cytoneme-mediated morphogen gradients by in silico modeling
Fig 5
In silico study of different cytoneme variables and their predicted impact on gradient features.
Reference simulation in red, simulations after modifying a specific parameter in blue (graded light to dark depends on the value) and experimental data in green. X) Left. Morphogen distribution for different cases, normalized to the maximum value of the reference case, along receiving cells including the expected variability per cell row (error bars). Right. Study of the number of contacts in the first row of receiving cells x0, normalized to the average value of the reference case: top, violin plots of 2000 simulations per case; bottom, green-color-coded matrix of p-values for the violin distributions. X’) Coefficient of variation per case in the first row of receiving cells x0 (left). Green-color-coded matrix of p-values for violin distributions (right). X”) Distribution of contacts normalized to their maximum value to compare changes in gradient shape along receiving cells (left). Coefficient of the normalized distributions to study the scaling along receiving cells (right). (A) Simulations for different cell size/cytoneme length ratios (ϕ = 2.5 to 3.5 each 0.2 μm (blue), ϕ = 3 μm (red)). (B) Simulations for different number of producing cells rows involved in the signaling (Np = 1 to 14 (blue), Np = 15 (red)). (C) Simulations for different number of cytonemes per cell (ncyt = 1 to 3 (blue), ncyt = 4 (red)).