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Fig. 3. Role of tissue dimensionality for morphogen gradient precision.
(A) In a one-dimensional chain of cells, morphogens cannot get beyond
the defective cell (red), resulting in a large impact on the gradient.
(B) In two-dimensional tissues, the effect of one defective cell is
smaller because it can be bypassed (arrows) if morphogen transport is
non-directional. (C) In three-dimensional tissues, the effect is even
smaller because there are more paths to bypass the defective cell. (D)
Logarithmic plot of theoretical
(x) calculated for different
dimensions, but otherwise identical parameters. Only the target cells are
subject to cell-to-cell variability (solid lines), or both the source and the
receiving cells (dashed lines).
D/a=7,
D/D0=0,
k/k0=1,
j/j0=0.37 (for details, see
Fig. S3 in the supplementary material).