title: How to build a robust intracellular concentration gradient.
abstract: Concentration gradients of morphogens are critical regulators of patterning in developmental biology. Increasingly, intracellular concentration gradients have also been found to orchestrate spatial organization, but inside single cells, where they regulate processes such as cell division, polarity and mitotic spindle dynamics. Here, we discuss recent progress in understanding how such intracellular gradients can be built robustly. We focus particularly on the Pom1p gradient in fission yeast, elucidating how various buffering mechanisms operate to ensure precise gradient formation. In this case, a systems-level understanding of the entire mechanism of precise gradient construction is now within reach, with important implications for gradients in both intracellular and developmental contexts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computational and Systems Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK. martin.howard@jic.ac.uk
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Howard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D042541:Intracellular Space / Q000378:metabolism*; D011485:Protein Binding; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins
chemical_list: D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D011494:Protein Kinases; C112212:Pom1 protein, S pombe