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. 2023 Mar 1;19(4):e11127. doi: 10.15252/msb.202211127

Figure 5. Coupled GTPases are predicted to support secrete‐and‐sense autonomy and maintenance of cell number.

Figure 5

  • A
    Schematic of the key features of the auto/paracrine loop that we hypothesize is regulated by the coupled GTPase circuit (left) and the corresponding phenomenological models to capture these key effects (right).
  • B, C
    Model prediction for secretion as a function of stimulus in cells with coupled and uncoupled GTPases. Noise is introduced into the system in a similar way as described in Fig EV4D–G. r 2 > 0.99 in (B); r 2 > 0.94 in (C).
  • D, E
    The secretion (D) or the cell number (E) as a function of stimulus in coupled and uncoupled switches. The stimulus = 0, 0.00046, 0.0046, 0.046, 0.115, 0.23, and 0.46 correspond to varying doses of EGF in simulations, ranging from 0, 0.1, 1, 10, 25, 50, and 100 nM, respectively. The error bar denotes SD based on 1,000 repeated independent simulations of ODEs when noise is in the stimulus and connections.
  • F
    The bar plot depicts cell numbers achieved by cells with either coupled or uncoupled switches, at different levels of stimulus. For the first two bars, the height and error bars are the mean and SD of cell number when stimulus = 0.046 in (E), respectively. For the last two bars, the height and error bars are the mean and SD of cell number when stimulus = 0 in (E), respectively.
  • G
    Relation between cell number and EGF in the presence of noise, which was introduced in a similar way as described in Fig EV4D–G. r 2 > 0.95.