The Drosophila gap gene network is composed of two parallel toggle switches.

ABSTRACT: Drosophila "gap" genes provide the first response to maternal gradients in the early fly embryo. Gap genes are expressed in a series of broad bands across the embryo during first hours of development. The gene network controlling the gap gene expression patterns includes inputs from maternal gradients and mutual repression between the gap genes themselves. In this study we propose a modular design for the gap gene network, involving two relatively independent network domains. The core of each network domain includes a toggle switch corresponding to a pair of mutually repressive gap genes, operated in space by maternal inputs. The toggle switches present in the gap network are evocative of the phage lambda switch, but they are operated positionally (in space) by the maternal gradients, so t

SUBMITTER: Papatsenko D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3128594 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature