Dynamics of an incoherent feedforward loop drive ERK-dependent pattern formation in the early Drosophila embryo.

ABSTRACT: Positional information in developing tissues often takes the form of stripes of gene expression that mark the boundaries of a particular cell type or morphogenetic process. How stripes form is still in many cases poorly understood. Here we use optogenetics and live-cell biosensors to investigate one such pattern: the posterior stripe of brachyenteron (byn) expression in the early Drosophila embryo. This byn stripe depends on interpretation of an upstream signal - a gradient of ERK kinase activity - and the expression of two target genes tailless (tll) and huckebein (hkb) that exert antagonistic control over byn . We find that high or low doses of ERK signaling produce either transient or sustained byn expression, respectively. These ERK stim

SUBMITTER: Ho EK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10028984 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature