Altschuler et al. (2008) On the spontaneous emergence of cell polarity

Altschuler SJ, Angenent SB, Wang Y, Wu LF (2008) On the spontaneous emergence of cell polarity. Nature. 454(7206): 886-889.
The authors describe a model of spontaneous cell polarization with a positive feedback. Drawing on an evolutionary model of “stepping stone” by Kimura, the authors simulate space implicitly and attempt to show how their model can generate patterns. The supplementary material demonstrates an analytical solution to the model.

Going through the model we find certain unexplained jumps in the derivation. The simulation appears to be fine, and so consequently the main results. More on this in a while.