MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
Science for Health
New understanding of wingless gradient
23 January 2009
An influential concept in developmental biology is that cells can acquire positional information by reading the local concentration of a morphogen originating from a localised source.
Jean-Paul Vincent and Eugenia Piddini,. from NIMR's Division of Developmental Neurobiology, have provided experimental evidence that cells within a field do not read the local morphogen level in isolation. Rather, in response to morphogen-induced signalling, cells produce secondary inhibitory signals that modulate each other's response to the morphogen.
Such secondary processing could lead to contrast enhancement and hence the formation of sharp cell fate boundaries. One can imagine that within a geographical area, individual GPS receivers would be more accurate if they could compare their readings. Similarly, secondary cell communication could be a general means of adding precision to the interpretation of morphogen gradients.
Dr Vincent
Original Article
The research findings are published in full in:
Eugenia Piddini and Jean-Paul Vincent (2009) Interpretation of the Wingless gradient requires signalling-induced self-inhibition Cell 136, 296-307. Publisher abstract
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