TY - JOUR

T1 - A living mesoscopic cellular automaton made of skin scales

AU - Manukyan, Liana

AU - Montandon, Sophie A.

AU - Fofonjka, Anamarija

AU - Smirnov, Stanislav

AU - Milinkovitch, Michel C.

PY - 2017/4/12

Y1 - 2017/4/12

N2 - In vertebrates, skin colour patterns emerge from nonlinear dynamical microscopic systems of cell interactions. Here we show that in ocellated lizards a quasi-hexagonal lattice of skin scales, rather than individual chromatophore cells, establishes a green and black labyrinthine pattern of skin colour. We analysed time series of lizard scale colour dynamics over four years of their development and demonstrate that this pattern is produced by a cellular automaton (a grid of elements whose states are iterated according to a set of rules based on the states of neighbouring elements) that dynamically computes the colour states of individual mesoscopic skin scales to produce the corresponding macroscopic colour pattern. Using numerical simulations and mathematical derivation, we identify how a discrete von Neumann cellular automaton emerges from a continuous Turing reaction-diffusion system. Skin thickness variation generated by three-dimensional morphogenesis of skin scales causes the underlying reaction-diffusion dynamics to separate into microscopic and mesoscopic spatial scales, the latter generating a cellular automaton. Our study indicates that cellular automata are not merely abstract computational systems, but can directly correspond to processes generated by biological evolution.

AB - In vertebrates, skin colour patterns emerge from nonlinear dynamical microscopic systems of cell interactions. Here we show that in ocellated lizards a quasi-hexagonal lattice of skin scales, rather than individual chromatophore cells, establishes a green and black labyrinthine pattern of skin colour. We analysed time series of lizard scale colour dynamics over four years of their development and demonstrate that this pattern is produced by a cellular automaton (a grid of elements whose states are iterated according to a set of rules based on the states of neighbouring elements) that dynamically computes the colour states of individual mesoscopic skin scales to produce the corresponding macroscopic colour pattern. Using numerical simulations and mathematical derivation, we identify how a discrete von Neumann cellular automaton emerges from a continuous Turing reaction-diffusion system. Skin thickness variation generated by three-dimensional morphogenesis of skin scales causes the underlying reaction-diffusion dynamics to separate into microscopic and mesoscopic spatial scales, the latter generating a cellular automaton. Our study indicates that cellular automata are not merely abstract computational systems, but can directly correspond to processes generated by biological evolution.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017552512&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/nature22031

DO - 10.1038/nature22031

M3 - Article

C2 - 28406206

AN - SCOPUS:85017552512

VL - 544

SP - 173

EP - 179

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

SN - 0028-0836

IS - 7649

ER -