POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access The impact of resource competition on neurite outgrowth

Axonal and dendritic growth is a highly dynamic pro-cess, where neurites elongate, bifurcate and retract. Local calcium influx [1] or local depolarisation [2] of a neurite can cause it to grow faster. The rapid growth of one branch is often accompanied by a retraction of other nearby branches [3]. This process is important for correct wiring of neuronal circuits [4]. In this study we investigate resource competition as a potential mechan-ism to explain the interactions between neurite branches. We have created a full compartmental model developed in python [5] using numpy [6] building on a previous modelling study [7] which suggested that the interplay between neurites might be explained by com-petition for resources produced in the soma; however, this has not been rigorously investigated. Neurons ar