title: The interpretation of morphogen gradients.
abstract: Morphogens act as graded positional cues that control cell fate specification in many developing tissues. This concept, in which a signalling gradient regulates differential gene expression in a concentration-dependent manner, provides a basis for understanding many patterning processes. It also raises several mechanistic issues, such as how responding cells perceive and interpret the concentration-dependent information provided by a morphogen to generate precise patterns of gene expression and cell differentiation in developing tissues. Here, we review recent work on the molecular features of morphogen signalling that facilitate the interpretation of graded signals and attempt to identify some emerging common principles.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences, The University of Manchester, UK. hilary.ashe@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: Hilary L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Ashe
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Briscoe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000502:physiology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009024:Morphogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins