Underlying assumptions of developmental models

Abstract

These 10 obvious propositions make a model of the specification of form, intended to expose underlying assumptions of developmental biology for examination and future experimentation. (I) The control of development is by means of local interactions, rather than global control mechanisms. (II) A macromolecule near a specific site will bind by mass action. (III) Starting with a precursor cell, all cells are assembled automatically by specifically binding macromolecules. (IV) At the surface of cells are specific adhesion sites that determine how all cells bind to each other. (V) An organism will assemble automatically from parts (macromolecules, structures, and cells) specified by nuclear control factors. (VI) The nuclear control factors in each cell are from precursor cells and factors derived by signaling from other cells. (VII) The macromolecules that determine specific binding, cell adhesion, and signaling are controlled by nuclear control factors, and in a grand feedback the cell adhesion and signaling systems determine the nuclear factor patterns. (VIII) The embryonic precursor cells for organs, termed "precursor groups," are linked by adhesion and signaling relationships. (IX) The precursor groups include precursors for regions of an organ and boundary cells between regions having few cell types, growing without additional specific cell-to-cell relationships. (X) Organs are held together by cell adhesion in functional relationships. Thus the form and function of the organism is specified entirely by local control mechanisms. Without global control systems, information for form is in the genes for structural proteins, adhesion molecules, control factors, signaling molecules, and their control regions.