<< Many organisms exhibit visually striking spotted or striped pigmentation patterns. Developmental models predict that such spatial patterns can form when a local autocatalytic feedback loop and a long-range inhibitory feedback loop interact. At its simplest, this self-organizing network only requires one self-activating activator that also activates a repressor, which inhibits the activator and diffuses to neighboring cells. >>
Baoqing Ding, Erin L. Patterson, et al.
Two MYB Proteins in a Self-Organizing Activator-Inhibitor System Produce Spotted Pigmentation Patterns. Current Biology. Vol 30, Issue 5, P802-814.E8. Mar 9, 2020.
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)31700-2
<< Patterns are everywhere in nature, not just color patterns but even how leaves are arranged on a stem, really anything with periodicity. Explaining these patterns could be similar in principle and that is what we're hoping to do, >> Yaowu Yuan
More clues for how the monkeyflower got its spots. University of Connecticut. Feb 20, 2020.
https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-clues-monkeyflower.html
