Journal
DEVELOPMENT
Volume 142, Issue 23, Pages 3996-4009Publisher
COMPANY BIOLOGISTS LTD
DOI: 10.1242/dev.129452
Keywords
Bicoid; Drosophila blastoderm; Gene regulatory network; Morphogen interpretation; Sonic hedgehog; Vertebrate neural tube
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Funding
- Francis Crick Institute [FCI01]
- Cancer Research UK
- UK Medical Research Council
- Wellcome Trust [WT098326MA]
- Medical Research Council [U117560541]
- National Institutes of Health [R01 GM 51946]
- The Francis Crick Institute [10053, 10051] Funding Source: researchfish
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The Drosophila blastoderm and the vertebrate neural tube are archetypal examples of morphogen-patterned tissues that create precise spatial patterns of different cell types. In both tissues, pattern formation is dependent on molecular gradients that emanate from opposite poles. Despite distinct evolutionary origins and differences in time scales, cell biology and molecular players, both tissues exhibit striking similarities in the regulatory systems that establish gene expression patterns that foreshadow the arrangement of cell types. First, signaling gradients establish initial conditions that polarize the tissue, but there is no strict correspondence between specific morphogen thresholds and boundary positions. Second, gradients initiate transcriptional networks that integrate broadly distributed activators and localized repressors to generate patterns of gene expression. Third, the correct positioning of boundaries depends on the temporal and spatial dynamics of the transcriptional networks. These similarities reveal design principles that are likely to be broadly applicable to morphogen-patterned tissues.
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