Precision of morphogen gradients in neural tube development


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Date

2022-03-03

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

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Abstract

Morphogen gradients encode positional information during development. How high patterning precision is achieved despite natural variation in both the morphogen gradients and in the readout process, is still largely elusive. Here, we show that the positional error of gradients in the mouse neural tube has previously been overestimated, and that the reported accuracy of the central progenitor domain boundaries in the mouse neural tube can be achieved with a single gradient, rather than requiring the simultaneous readout of opposing gradients. Consistently and independently, numerical simulations based on measured molecular noise levels likewise result in lower gradient variabilities than reported. Finally, we show that the patterning mechanism yields progenitor cell numbers with even greater precision than boundary positions, as gradient amplitude changes do not affect interior progenitor domain sizes. We conclude that single gradients can yield the observed developmental precision, which provides prospects for tissue engineering.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

13

Pages / Article No.

1145

Publisher

Nature

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Organisational unit

03791 - Iber, Dagmar / Iber, Dagmar check_circle

Notes

Funding

170930 - A 3D Cell-Based Simulation Framework for Morphogenetic Problems (SNF)

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