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Differing strategies for organizing anterior and posterior body pattern in Drosophila embryos

Nature volume 338, pages 741–744 (1989)Cite this article

Abstract

Opposing anterior and posterior morphogen systems specify the segmented body pattern of Drosophila. The anterior morphogen, bicoid, exerts a direct instructive influence on head and thoracic pattern by triggering different outcomes according to changes in its concentration along the body. In contrast the posterior morphogen, nanos, simply defines where abdominal patterning can occur by eliminating an otherwise ubiquitous repressor, hunchback protein, from the posterior half of the embryo. Within this hunchback-free domain the pattern of abdominal segments must be specified by other morphogens, possibly by shorter range gradients of the products of zygotic gap genes Kruppel, knirps and tailless.

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  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 722 W. 168 Street, New York, New York, 10032, USA

    Gary Struhl

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  1. Gary Struhl
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Struhl, G. Differing strategies for organizing anterior and posterior body pattern in Drosophila embryos. Nature 338, 741–744 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/338741a0

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