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Figure 2 | Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling

Figure 2

From: On the origins of the mitotic shift in proliferating cell layers

Figure 2

A binary tree representation of the side-gaining process. (A) The function G(m,n,V) represents the probability that an m-sided cell gains n sides after V of its immediate neighbors have divided. Side-gaining is a binary event which occurs when a neighboring cell’s cleavage plane impinges on a common interface. For each neighboring division, either one or zero sides is gained. Q(m) is the probability that an m-sided cell gains a side due to a single neighboring division. On the binary tree, horizontal paths represent a failure to gain a side, which occurs with probability 1-Q(m). Elevated paths represent side-gaining events. Note that to compute G(m,n,V), multiple paths representing different stochastic trajectories must be summed. (B) A more concrete representation of the side-gaining process, which here depicts the different cell shape trajectories for a hexagon, and its potential transitions to a heptagonal or octagonal state due to side-gaining.

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