Swarm intelligence of gene networks leads to behavioral rules for biological cells to serve as agents for higher level tissue and organ development

Abstract

We provide two-levels of description of organ development as swarm intelligences. The organogenesis process is a clear structure--function system with the property of self-organization (or SI organization). We suggest how this can be applied to the example of kidney development. We discuss how genes and proteins can be described as SI agents. We analyze simplified functions of agents (genes, proteins, etc.) that lead to organization of the next level of cell--cell interactions and postulate rules of behavior of the cells as agents of the next level SI. We also discuss the necessary features of the gene networks that may make it possible for "relay" signal transfer between the cells.