Abstract
IT is generally accepted that cellular differentiation depends chiefly on differential gene activity7. The model of differential gene activity implies the existence of different inducers/repressors activating/repressing different genes. Indirect evidence for such molecules in Drosophila comes from experiments of Illmensee and Mahowald2 who showed that the information for primordial germ cell determination is in the cytoplasm of the posterior pole of the egg and that when this cytoplasm is transferred to the anterior pole so is the information. Their experiments suggest that genes are regulated not only in time but also in space, possibly by molecules distributed unequally in the developing system3. We have analysed Drosophila eggs for such molecules.
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References
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GRAZIOSI, G., ROBERTS, D. Molecular anisotropy of the early Drosophila embryo. Nature 258, 157–159 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/258157a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/258157a0
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