title: BMP morphogen gradients in flies.
abstract: Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) act as morphogens to control patterning and growth in a variety of developing tissues in different species. How BMP morphogen gradients are established and interpreted in the target tissues has been extensively studied in Drosophila melanogaster. In Drosophila, Decapentaplegic (Dpp), a homologue of vertebrate BMP2/4, acts as a morphogen to control dorsal-ventral patterning of the early embryo and anterior-posterior patterning and growth of the wing imaginal disc. Despite intensive efforts over the last twenty years, how the Dpp morphogen gradient in the wing imaginal disc forms remains controversial, while gradient formation in the early embryo is well understood. In this review, we first focus on the current models of Dpp morphogen gradient formation in these two tissues, and then discuss new strategies using genome engineering and nanobodies to tackle open questions.
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum der Universität Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50/70, CH-4053 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum der Universität Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50/70, CH-4053 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harmansa
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum der Universität Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50/70, CH-4053 Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: markus.affolter@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Affolter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000196:embryology*; D060227:Imaginal Discs / Q000196:embryology*; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000196:embryology*
chemical_list: D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C064196:dpp protein, Drosophila
keywords: Dpp; Genome engineering; Growth and patterning; Morphogen; Nanobody