How noisy coupled clock cells produce sharp segment boundaries
In plain words
Each cell of the tissue that forms backbone segments carries its own noisy genetic clock, and neighbors keep each other in step by signaling through contact. How precisely segment boundaries can be placed, given this noise, cell mixing and cell division, is not quantified.
Precise statement
Model the presomitic mesoderm as phase oscillators with intrinsic phase noise, coupled through Delta-Notch signaling with a time delay, advected by a moving wavefront that arrests oscillations. Compute the boundary-position error (reported to be of order one cell diameter, approximate) as a function of coupling strength, delay, noise and cell-mixing rate, and test it against live single-cell phase data under graded Notch inhibition.
What would settle it
Live imaging of single-cell clock reporters with graded Notch inhibition, compared with the boundary-error prediction of a delayed-coupled oscillator model with measured parameters.
Status in the literature
Delayed-coupling theory accounts for loss of synchrony under Notch inhibition in zebrafish (Riedel-Kruse, Muller and Oates, 2007); a quantitative prediction of boundary precision is not established, to this survey's knowledge.