%0 Journal Article
%T Structural analysis of eyespots: dynamics of morphogenic signals that govern elemental positions in butterfly wings
%A Joji M Otaki
%J BMC Systems Biology
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1752-0509-6-17
%X In a well-developed eyespot, the inner black core ring is much wider than the outer black ring; this is termed the inside-wide rule. It appears that signals are wider near the focus of the eyespot and become narrower as they expand. Although fundamental signal dynamics are likely to be based on a reaction-diffusion mechanism, they were described well mathematically as a type of simple uniformly decelerated motion in which signals associated with the outer and inner black rings of eyespots and PFEs are released at different time points, durations, intervals, and initial velocities into a two-dimensional field of fundamentally uniform or graded resistance; this produces eyespots and PFEs that are diverse in size and structure. The inside-wide rule, eyespot distortion, structural differences between small and large eyespots, and structural changes in eyespots and PFEs in response to physiological treatments were explained well using mathematical simulations. Natural colour patterns and previous experimental findings that are not easily explained by the conventional gradient model were also explained reasonably well by the formal mathematical simulations performed in this study.In a mode free from speculative molecular interactions, the present study clarifies fundamental structural rules related to butterfly eyespots, delineates a theoretical basis for the induction model, and proposes a mathematically simple mode of long-range signalling that may reflect developmental mechanisms associated with butterfly eyespots.Although butterfly wing patterns are highly complex, it is believed that they are produced by simple rules that determine the fate of immature scale cells fixed in a two-dimensional plane. Among the colour-pattern elements that constitute the overall wing pattern, eyespots are conspicuous symmetric elements. Partly for this reason, characterisation of eyespots via physical damage and transplantation methods has been intensively performed, with the focus on th
%K Butterfly wing
%K Colour-pattern determination
%K Eyespot
%K Parafocal element
%K Induction model
%K Morphogenic signal
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1752-0509/6/17