Tatyana Bukharina1, Andrey Akinshin2, Vladimir Golubyatnikov3, Dagmara Furman4
1Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, bukharina@bionet.nsc.ru
2Sobolev Institute of Mathematics SB RAS, Andrey.akinshin@gmail.com
3Sobolev Institute of Mathematics SB RAS, vpgolubyatn@gmail.com
4Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, furman@bionet.nsc.ru
Macrochaetes are sensor organs of the drosophila with a function of mechanoreceptors. An adult mechanoreceptor comprises four specialized cells. All these cells originate from the sensory organ precursor (SOP) cell. A characteristic feature of the SOP cell is the highest content of the proneural proteins ASC as compared with the surrounding cells. The accumulation of these proteins and maintenance of their amount in the SOP cell at a necessary level is provided by the gene network with the achaete-scute gene complex (AS-C) as its key component. The central regulatory circuit (CRC) controls the activity of this complex. The CRC activity comprises two phases differing in the time when they act. A specific feature of the second phase is the presence of PHYL protein, involved in degradation of proneural proteins. We propose a mathematical model for the CRC functioning as a regulator of the content of ASC proteins in the sensory organ precursor cell.