Morphogenetic gradients determine cell identity during development through the concentration-dependent activation of target genes, but how the precision of the response to morphogens is determined is unclear. On p. 2795, Nathalie Dostatni and co-workers provide new insights into this developmental puzzle by examining the transcriptional response to Bicoid in Drosophila embryos. The Bicoid gradient is established in Drosophila embryos after eight nuclear divisions (cycle 9) and target protein expression is specified by cycle 14 with a precision that corresponds to a 10% Bicoid concentration difference. To understand how this precision is achieved, the researchers analyze nascent transcripts of the Bicoid target gene hunchback. They report that hunchback is already transcribed from both alleles in most anterior nuclei in cycle 11 interphasic embryos. This synchronous expression is specified within a 10% difference of Bicoid, a precision that is compatible with the fast mobility of Bicoid in the nucleus measured using fluorescent correlation spectroscopy. Finally and importantly, genetic experiments reveal that maternal Hunchback contributes to the early synchrony of the Bicoid response.
Bicoid gradient: precision through hunchback
Bicoid gradient: precision through hunchback. Development 15 August 2010; 137 (16): e1605. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.