Francesca Mariani

A minimally sufficient model for rib proximal-distal patterning based on genetic analysis and agent-based simulations

This framework is broadly applicable for understanding the mechanisms of skeletal patterning along a proximal-distal axis.

Dear eLife readers,

I am Francesca Mariani from the University of Southern California, the last author on the paper. In my opinion, this highlighted sentence is the most exciting consequence of our work.

I think it is important to integrate several processes when trying to understand how patterning occurs, in particular (1) the nature of the input a cell receives from its local environment, (2) how this input can be interpreted while tissues grow and cells change their location in space. This can be challenging to imagine and Agent-Based Model such as used here can be very useful. While we use rib development here to look at this issue, another area ripe for this kind of approach is vertebrate limb development.

I would be happy to answer any questions about the paper, and would love to receive comments. Feel free to annotate away!

All the best,

Francesca Mariani