Scaling a Dpp Morphogen Gradient through Feedback Control of Receptors and Co-receptors.

ABSTRACT: Gradients of decapentaplegic (Dpp) pattern Drosophila wing imaginal discs, establishing gene expression boundaries at specific locations. As discs grow, Dpp gradients expand, keeping relative boundary positions approximately stationary. Such scaling fails in mutants for Pentagone (pent), a gene repressed by Dpp that encodes a diffusible protein that expands Dpp gradients. Although these properties fit a recent mathematical model of automatic gradient scaling, that model requires an expander that spreads with minimal loss throughout a morphogen field. Here, we show that Pent's actions are confined to within just a few cell diameters of its site of synthesis and can be phenocopied by manipulating non-diffusible Pent targets strictly within the Pent expression domain. Using genetics and mathe

SUBMITTER: Zhu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7437929 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature