S18-05 Exploring the space of possibilities: Gene networks for multicellular pattern formation

timing. We have used a combination of live imaging, gene expression analysis, and physical theory to explore the organization and function of the segmentation clock, the synchronized oscillating gene network that underlies the dynamics of somitogenesis. I will discuss new experimental results identifying somitogenesis period mutants, and corresponding theoretical approaches that explain the collective control of cellular oscillations at the tissue level in terms of the delays in the coupling between cells. Such effects should be important in any biological clock where communication between oscillators is slow relative to the period of the clock.