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The Bicoid (BCD) morphogen gradient was thought to be formed by diffusion of the protein away from the anterior pole of theDrosophila melanogasterembryo. A new study shows that a bcd mRNA gradient prefigures the protein gradient and proposes a model that combines active mRNA transport with local BCD translation.
Natural antisense transcripts are frequently functional and are involved in regulating gene expression. The authors summarize the proposed actions of antisense transcript into four models, each corresponding to a putative regulatory mechanism for a subset of antisense transcripts.
