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Published August 2006 | Accepted Version + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Quantifying the Gurken morphogen gradient in Drosophila oogenesis

Abstract

Quantitative information about the distribution of morphogens is crucial for understanding their effects on cell-fate determination, yet it is difficult to obtain through direct measurements. We have developed a parameter estimation approach for quantifying the spatial distribution of Gurken, a TGFα-like EGFR ligand that acts as a morphogen in Drosophila oogenesis. Modeling of Gurken/EGFR system shows that the shape of the Gurken gradient is controlled by a single dimensionless parameter, the Thiele modulus, which reflects the relative importance of ligand diffusion and degradation. By combining the model with genetic alterations of EGFR levels, we have estimated the value of the Thiele modulus in the wild-type egg chamber. This provides a direct characterization of the shape of the Gurken gradient and demonstrates how parameter estimation techniques can be used to quantify morphogen gradients in development.

Additional Information

© 2006 Elsevier. Received 24 February 2006, Revised 1 June 2006, Accepted 13 July 2006, Available online 7 August 2006. Published: August 7, 2006. S.Y.S., T.S., and L.A.G. thank Sasha Berezhkovskii, Cyrill Muratov, Eric Wieschaus, Joe Duffy, Mark Lemmon, and Nir Yakoby for many helpful discussions during the course of this work; Gail Barcelo for help with making the pipe probe; Joe Goodhouse for help with imaging; and Jeremy Zartman and Matthieu Coppey for critical reading of the manuscript. The authors thank Joe Duffy and Alan Michelson for kindly providing strains and reagents used in this study. This work was supported by funds from the Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation to L.A.G.; funds from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Searle Scholar Program to S.Y.S.; and funds from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to T.S.

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Accepted Version - nihms449774.pdf

Supplemental Material - mmc1.pdf

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