TY - JOUR T1 - Dynamical Patterning Modules and Network Motifs as joint determinants of development: lessons from an aggregative bacterium JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/655381 SP - 655381 AU - Alejandra Guzmán-Herrera AU - Juan A. Arias Del Angel AU - Natsuko Rivera-Yoshida AU - Mariana Benítez AU - Alessio Franci Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/05/655381.abstract N2 - Development and evolution are dynamical processes under the continuous control of organismic and environmental factors. Generic physical processes, associated with biological materials and certain genes or molecules, provide a morphological template for the evolution and development of organism forms. Generic dynamical behaviors, associated with recurring network motifs, provide a temporal template for the regulation and coordination of biological processes. The role of generic physical processes and their associated molecules in development is the topic of the Dynamical Patterning Module (DPM) framework. The role of generic dynamical behaviors in biological regulation is studied via the identification of the associated Network Motifs (NM). We propose a joint DPM-NM perspective on the emergence and regulation of multicellularity focusing on a multicellular aggregative bacterium, Myxococcus xanthus. Understanding M. xanthus development as a dynamical process embedded in a physical substrate provides novel insights into the interaction between developmental regulatory networks and generic physical processes in the evolutionary transition to multicellularity.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -