Temporal and spatial dynamics of scaling-specific features of a gene regulatory network in Drosophila

Honggang Wu, Manu, Renjie Jiao and Jun Ma ()
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Honggang Wu: Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation
Manu: University of North Dakota
Renjie Jiao: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jun Ma: Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract A widely appreciated aspect of developmental robustness is pattern formation in proportion to size. But how such scaling features emerge dynamically remains poorly understood. Here we generate a data set of the expression profiles of six gap genes in Drosophila melanogaster embryos that differ significantly in size. Expression patterns exhibit size-dependent dynamics both spatially and temporally. We uncover a dynamic emergence of under-scaling in the posterior, accompanied by reduced expression levels of gap genes near the middle of large embryos. Simulation results show that a size-dependent Bicoid gradient input can lead to reduced Krüppel expression that can have long-range and dynamic effects on gap gene expression in the posterior. Thus, for emergence of scaled patterns, the entire embryo may be viewed as a single unified dynamic system where maternally derived size-dependent information interpreted locally can be propagated in space and time as governed by the dynamics of a gene regulatory network.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10031

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