title: Finding the center reliably: robust patterns of developmental gene expression.
abstract: We investigate a mechanism for the robust identification of the center of a developing biological system. We assume the existence of two morphogen gradients, an activator emanating from the anterior, and a corepressor from the posterior. The corepressor inhibits the action of the activator in switching on target genes. We apply this system to Drosophila embryos, where we predict the existence of a hitherto undetected posterior corepressor. Using mathematical modeling, we show that a symmetric activator-corepressor model can quantitatively explain the precise midembryo expression boundary of the hunchback gene, and the scaling of this pattern with embryo size.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: Pieter Rein
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: ten Wolde
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D050437:Genes, Developmental / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009154:Mutation; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C061245:hb protein, Drosophila