Genes, Morphogenesis, Evolution: Life and ALife Aspects
A connectionist Models
of Development
The framework of these models is based on the connectionist or "neural
net" dynamics for biochemical regulators, coupled to "grammatical
rules" which describe certain features of the birth, growth, and death
of cells, synapses and other biological entities.
The authors believe that it is possible to answer important questions about
development without modelling all aspects of the growth process at the
equal level of detail. For examlpe, the important features of genetic regulatory
curcuits can be understood in a model which treats mitosis as an elementary
event. Moreover the phenomenological model of gene regulation can be inferred
from observational data without the full understanding of the underlying
biochemistry.
In line with these ideas two models are developed which describe some of
the principle processes occurring in the development of fruit fly D. melanogaster.
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