Modeling and analysis of the Delta-Notch dependent boundary formation in the Drosophila large intestine

BACKGROUND: The boundary formation in the Drosophila large intestine is widely studied as an important biological problem. It has been shown that the Delta-Notch signaling pathway plays an essential role in the formation of boundary cells. RESULTS: In this paper, we propose a mathematical model for the Delta-Notch dependent boundary formation in the Drosophila large intestine in order to better interpret related experimental findings of this biological phenomenon. To achieve this, we not only perform stability analysis on the model from a theoretical point of view, but also perform numerical simulations to analyze the model with and without noises, the phenotype change with the change of Delta or Notch expression, and the perturbation influences of binding and inhibition parameters on the boundary formation. CONCLUSIONS: By doing all these work, we can assure that our model can better interpret the biological findings related to the boundary formation in the Drosophila large intestine.