Cellular Compartmentalisation and Receptor Promiscuity as a strategy for accuracy and robustness in Positional Inference during Morphogenesis

Precise spatial patterning of cell fate during morphogenesis requires accurate inference of cellular position. In making such inferences from morphogen profiles, cells must contend with inherent stochasticity in morphogen production, transport, sensing and signalling. Using multiple signalling mechanisms in development as motivation, we show how cells may utilise multiple tiers of processing (compartmentalisation) and parallel branches (multiple receptor types), together with feedback control, to bring about fidelity in morphogenetic decoding of their positions within a developing tissue. By simultaneously deploying specific and nonspecific receptors, cells achieve a more robust inference. This distributed information processing at the scale of the cell highlights how local cell autonomous control facilitates global tissue scale design.