IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v415y2002i6873d10.1038_415798a.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Establishment of developmental precision and proportions in the early Drosophila embryo

Author

Listed:
  • Bahram Houchmandzadeh

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Princeton University
    CNRS, Laboratoire de Spectrometrie Physique, BP87)

  • Eric Wieschaus

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Princeton University)

  • Stanislas Leibler

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Princeton University
    Princeton University
    Rockefeller University)

Abstract

During embryonic development, orderly patterns of gene expression eventually assign each cell in the embryo its particular fate. For the anteroposterior axis of the Drosophila embryo, the first step in this process depends on a spatial gradient of the maternal morphogen Bicoid (Bcd). Positional information of this gradient is transmitted to downstream gap genes, each occupying a well defined spatial domain1,2,3,4. We determined the precision of the initial process by comparing expression domains in different embryos. Here we show that the Bcd gradient displays a high embryo-to-embryo variability, but that this noise in the positional information is strongly decreased (‘filtered’) at the level of hunchback (hb) gene expression. In contrast to the Bcd gradient, the hb expression pattern already includes the information about the scale of the embryo. We show that genes known to interact directly with Hb are not responsible for its spatial precision, but that the maternal gene staufen may be crucial.

Suggested Citation

  • Bahram Houchmandzadeh & Eric Wieschaus & Stanislas Leibler, 2002. "Establishment of developmental precision and proportions in the early Drosophila embryo," Nature, Nature, vol. 415(6873), pages 798-802, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:415:y:2002:i:6873:d:10.1038_415798a
    DOI: 10.1038/415798a
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/415798a
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/415798a?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David M Holloway & Francisco J P Lopes & Luciano da Fontoura Costa & Bruno A N Travençolo & Nina Golyandina & Konstantin Usevich & Alexander V Spirov, 2011. "Gene Expression Noise in Spatial Patterning: hunchback Promoter Structure Affects Noise Amplitude and Distribution in Drosophila Segmentation," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(2), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Casper J Breuker & James S Patterson & Christian Peter Klingenberg, 2006. "A Single Basis for Developmental Buffering of Drosophila Wing Shape," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 1(1), pages 1-7, December.
    3. Xueying C. Li & Lautaro Gandara & Måns Ekelöf & Kerstin Richter & Theodore Alexandrov & Justin Crocker, 2024. "Rapid response of fly populations to gene dosage across development and generations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Jeremy A. Owen & Jordan M. Horowitz, 2023. "Size limits the sensitivity of kinetic schemes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Roman Vetter & Dagmar Iber, 2022. "Precision of morphogen gradients in neural tube development," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Jingyuan Deng & Wei Wang & Long Jason Lu & Jun Ma, 2010. "A Two-Dimensional Simulation Model of the Bicoid Gradient in Drosophila," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(4), pages 1-11, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:415:y:2002:i:6873:d:10.1038_415798a. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.