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A mathematical model of the Hippo pathway in Drosophila melanogaster

Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery

The Hippo pathway, which is a central pathway in the control of cell proliferation and apoptosis in Drosophila and mammalian cells, contains a core kinase mechanism that affects control of the cell cycle and growth. Studies involving over- and under-expression of components in the morphogen and Hippo pathways in Drosophila reveal conditions that lead to over- or undergrowth. In this talk we discuss a mathematical model that incorporates the current understanding of the Hippo signal transduction network in Drosophila and which can explain qualitatively both the observations on whole-disc manipulations and the results arising from mutant clones. We find that a number of non-intuitive experimental results can be explained by subtle changes in the balances between inputs to the Hippo pathway. Since signal transduction and growth control pathways are highly conserved across species and directly involved in tumor growth, much of what is learned about Drosophila may have relevance to tumor dynamics in mammalian systems.

Mathematics; Biology and other natural sciences; Mathematical biology

video/mp4

Author affiliation: University of Minnesota

2018-07-06

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/66435

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/