TY - JOUR

T1 - Characterization of the Drosophila segment determination morphome

AU - Surkova, Svetlana

AU - Kosman, David

AU - Kozlov, Konstantin

AU - Manu,

AU - Myasnikova, Ekaterina

AU - Samsonova, Anastasia A.

AU - Spirov, Alexander

AU - Vanario-Alonso, Carlos E.

AU - Samsonova, Maria

AU - Reinitz, John

PY - 2008/1/15

Y1 - 2008/1/15

N2 - Here we characterize the expression of the full system of genes which control the segmentation morphogenetic field of Drosophila at the protein level in one dimension. The data used for this characterization are quantitative with cellular resolution in space and about 6 min in time. We present the full quantitative profiles of all 14 segmentation genes which act before the onset of gastrulation. The expression patterns of these genes are first characterized in terms of their average or typical behavior. At this level, the expression of all of the genes has been integrated into a single atlas of gene expression in which the expression levels of all genes in each cell are specified. We show that expression domains do not arise synchronously, but rather each domain has its own specific dynamics of formation. Moreover, we show that the expression domains shift position in the direction of the cephalic furrow, such that domains in the anlage of the segmented germ band shift anteriorly while those in the presumptive head shift posteriorly. The expression atlas of integrated data is very close to the expression profiles of individual embryos during the latter part of the blastoderm stage. At earlier times gap gene domains show considerable variation in amplitude, and significant positional variability. Nevertheless, an average early gap domain is close to that of a median individual. In contrast, we show that there is a diversity of developmental trajectories among pair-rule genes at a variety of levels, including the order of domain formation and positional accuracy. We further show that this variation is dynamically reduced, or canalized, over time. As the first quantitatively characterized morphogenetic field, this system and its behavior constitute an extraordinarily rich set of materials for the study of canalization and embryonic regulation at the molecular level.

AB - Here we characterize the expression of the full system of genes which control the segmentation morphogenetic field of Drosophila at the protein level in one dimension. The data used for this characterization are quantitative with cellular resolution in space and about 6 min in time. We present the full quantitative profiles of all 14 segmentation genes which act before the onset of gastrulation. The expression patterns of these genes are first characterized in terms of their average or typical behavior. At this level, the expression of all of the genes has been integrated into a single atlas of gene expression in which the expression levels of all genes in each cell are specified. We show that expression domains do not arise synchronously, but rather each domain has its own specific dynamics of formation. Moreover, we show that the expression domains shift position in the direction of the cephalic furrow, such that domains in the anlage of the segmented germ band shift anteriorly while those in the presumptive head shift posteriorly. The expression atlas of integrated data is very close to the expression profiles of individual embryos during the latter part of the blastoderm stage. At earlier times gap gene domains show considerable variation in amplitude, and significant positional variability. Nevertheless, an average early gap domain is close to that of a median individual. In contrast, we show that there is a diversity of developmental trajectories among pair-rule genes at a variety of levels, including the order of domain formation and positional accuracy. We further show that this variation is dynamically reduced, or canalized, over time. As the first quantitatively characterized morphogenetic field, this system and its behavior constitute an extraordinarily rich set of materials for the study of canalization and embryonic regulation at the molecular level.

KW - Blastoderm

KW - Drosophila embryo

KW - Gene expression

KW - Positional information

KW - Quantitative expression data

KW - Segmentation genes

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38049032428&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ydbio.2007.10.037

DO - 10.1016/j.ydbio.2007.10.037

M3 - Article

C2 - 18067886

AN - SCOPUS:38049032428

VL - 313

SP - 844

EP - 862

JO - Developmental Biology

JF - Developmental Biology

SN - 0012-1606

IS - 2

ER -