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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 May 21.
Published in final edited form as: Int J Dev Biol. 2009;53(5-6):813–826. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.072556cc

Fig. 6. A hypothetical model for reptile scale pattern formation, illustrating the effects of different concentrations and with possible involvement of both epithelium and mesenchyme.

Fig. 6

Numerical solution of a patterning model, as outlined in the Supplementary Information. We assume that a reaction-diffusion model with Schnakenberg-type kinetics (Schnakenberg, 1979) can be used to describe the concentration of two chemicals v and w in the epidermis. (A,B)The concentration profiles of v and w respectively, using the parameter values given in Table 2 (column 3), with no interaction from the dermis. (C–E) illustrate possible pattern profiles that could arise depending on the threshold level chosen for differentiation. (F,G) The concentration profiles of v and w, respectively, using the parameter values given in Table 2 (column 4), with no interaction from the dermis. (H) Spatial map of the pattern assumed to form in the dermis (Shaw and Murray, 1990). (I,J) Results of numerical solution of the model with interaction from the dermis: it is assumed that production of the chemical v is perturbed according to the patterning shown in (C). We see that the wavelengths of each pattern combine to form a more complex arrangement than in either of the individual cases shown in (F,G,H).