Noise-driven cell differentiation and the emergence of spatiotemporal patterns

One of the major transitions in evolution is the step from unicellularity into the brave new world of multicellularity. To understand this feat, one has to fathom two main characteristics of multicellular organisms: differentiation and self-organization. Any explanation concerning this major transition should involve mechanisms that can simultaneously explain the marvellous intricacies manifest in the aforementioned characteristics, and an account of the evolution of such traits. Here we propose a noise-driven differentiation (NDD) model. The reliance on noise, in place of a more mechanistic approach, makes the NDD model a more suitable approach to explain differentiation and self-organization. Furthermore, our model sheds some light on the possible evolutionary origins of these biological innovations. To test the NDD model, we utilize a model of cell aggregation. The behavior of this model of cell aggregation is in concert with the NDD model.