Modeling a Cellular Response to a Gradient Mathematics and Molecular Biology Inform a Mechanistic Understanding

Abstract

Cell migration is prevalent in normal development of all animals, and pathological conditions like birth defects or metastatic cancers can arise when this process goes awry. Understanding the phenomenon of cells undergoing the transition from a stationary state to a migratory stage is of broad interest. Such a complex problem can be more easily studied in a simple organism, such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (Naora and Montell, 2005). Drosophila is one of the most studied organisms in biological research. Its short generation time, high fecundity, visible congenital markers, and well-characterizedgenome are just a few of the many traits that make it an ideal organismfor genetic studies. In addition, about eighty percent of disease genes in humans encode proteins that are conserved in flies (Reiter et al., 2001). Thus, because the underlying molecular signaling mechanisms are well conserved, insight into cell migration gleaned from Drosophila will likely be broadly applicable.