Control of Drosophila body pattern by the hunchback morphogen gradient.

By G. Struhl, P. Johnston, P. Lawrence. 1992

Most of the thoracic and abdominal segments of Drosophila are specified early in embryogenesis by the overlapping activities of the hunchback (hb), Krüppel, knirps, and giant gap genes. The orderly expression of these genes depends on two maternal determinants: bicoid, which activates hb transcription anteriorly, and nanos, which blocks translation of hb transcripts posteriorly. Here we provide evidence that the resulting gradient of hb protein dictates where the Krüppel, knirps, and giant genes are expressed by providing a series of concentration thresholds that regulate each gene independently. Thus, hb protein functions as a classical morphogen, triggering several distinct responses as a function of its graded distribution.

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

1. Diethard Tautz
2. C. Schulz

Citations in the corpus

• Autonomous concentration-dependent activation and repression of Krüppel by hunchback in the Drosophila embryo. (1994, background): “3F), only the typical gt phenotype in the posterior region is evident, while the anterior segments are rescued. hb acts normally as a repressor of gt (Struhl et al., 1992) and an activation of an anterior gt domain by the hb-bcd3′UTR construct is therefore highly unexpected.”