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Zygotic expression of the Drosophila TGF beta family member decapentaplegic (dpp) is required for the development of the dorsal embryonic structures. By injecting dpp transcripts into young embryos, we find that 2- to 4-fold increases in the concentration of injected RNA elicit progressively more dorsal cell fates: only low levels of dpp permit development of ventral ectoderm, intermediate dpp levels drive dorsal epidermal development, and high dpp levels drive cells to differentiate as the most dorsal pattern element, the amnioserosa. Localized dpp RNA injections into embryos that lack all known maternal and zygotic dorsal-ventral polarity indicate that dpp can both define embryonic polarity and organize detailed patterning within the ectoderm. We infer that dpp acts as an extracellular morphogen and that the graded activity of dpp specifies the pattern of ectodermal cell fates in the Drosophila embryo.
E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
October 1987,
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E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
September 1987,
The EMBO journal,
E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
June 1990,
Seminars in cell biology,
E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
September 1996,
Science (New York, N.Y.),
E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
August 1991,
Current opinion in genetics & development,
E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
August 1993,
Current opinion in genetics & development,
E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
January 1984,
Nature,
E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
January 1995,
Annual review of genetics,
E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
February 1994,
Cell,
E L Ferguson, and
K V Anderson
September 2007,
Nature reviews. Genetics,
