Networks were generated by a elongation and branching process initialized from a number of seed points (s) uniformly distributed on the perimeter of the cell. Small seed numbers s (A-C) usually resulted in heterogeneous network structures, with marked differences in network density across the cell; for increasing seed numbers (D-F), networks were more uniformly distributed throughout the cell. Wild type (WT; red) and mutant type (MT; blue) mtDNA molecules were distributed into networks according to the proportions p (WT) and q (MT). In different model variants, diffusion with scale parameter λ was applied to mtDNAs prior to division to model network fragmentation and subsequent motion (G-H; original network shown for reference), and mtDNAs were placed with a repulsive interaction inducing greater-than-random spacing (I).
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