Gap Junctional Blockade Stochastically Induces Different Species-Specific Head Anatomies in Genetically Wild-Type Girardia dorotocephala Flatworms.

The shape of an animal body plan is constructed from protein components encoded by the genome. However, bioelectric networks composed of many cell types have their own intrinsic dynamics, and can drive distinct morphological outcomes during embryogenesis and regeneration. Planarian flatworms are a popular system for exploring body plan patterning due to their regenerative capacity, but despite considerable molecular information regarding stem cell differentiation and basic axial patterning, very little is known about how distinct head shapes are produced.

Domain of oscillatory growth in directional solidification of dilute binary alloys.

The oscillatory growth of a dilute binary alloy has recently been described by a nonlinear oscillator equation that applies to small temperature gradients and large growth velocities in the setup of directional solidification. Based on a one-dimensional stability analysis of stationary solutions of this equation, we explore in the present paper the complete region where the solidification front propagates in an oscillatory way. The boundary of this region is calculated exactly, and the nature of the oscillations is evaluated numerically in several segments of the region.