Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signalling regulates numerous processes throughout Drosophila development. For example, during oogenesis, an EGFR activation gradient induced by Gurken (a TGFα-like ligand secreted from the oocyte) patterns the follicular epithelium. On p. 2814, Stanislav Shvartsman and colleagues present a revised mathematical model for this important process, which initiates the formation of two dorsal eggshell appendages. Each of these appendages is derived from a primordium that comprises a patch of cells expressing the transcription factor gene broad (br) and an adjacent strip of cells expressing rhomboid (rho), which encodes a protease in the EGFR pathway. Previous models of eggshell patterning have not fully accounted for the coordinated expression of br and rho. The new model, however, proposes that the sequential action of feed-forward loops and Notch-mediated juxtacrine signals activated by the EGFR signalling gradient establishes rho expression, successfully describes the wild-type br and rho expression patterns, and accounts for changes in these patterns in response to genetic perturbations.
Modelling EGFR patterning of fly epithelium
Modelling EGFR patterning of fly epithelium. Development 1 August 2012; 139 (15): e1506. 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.