Morphogen rules: design principles of gradient-mediated embryo patterning

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…

• WT
  Wellcome Trust

  Award: WT098326MA
• FC
  Francis Crick Institute

  Award: FCI01
• CR
  Cancer Research UK
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Award: U117560541