Generation and Interpretation of Morphogen Gradients

Signalling by morphogens such as the Hedgehog family, Notch, Wingless/Wnt and various growth factors is essential during embryogenesis. The establishment of concentration gradients of these morphogens plays a key role during developmental patterning in all multicellular organisms, assuring that distinct cell/tissue types and organs appear at the right place in the right time during embryogenesis. Regulation of morphogen synthesis, trafficking and diffusion are all known to play a part in setting up these gradients, and a complex web of signaling mechanisms ensures that specific responses occur at the correct threshold concentration in the recipient cells whose fate depends on these morphogens.

Table of Contents:
Robust Generation and Decoding of Morphogen Gradients Naama Barkai and Ben-Zion Shilo Nodal Morphogens Alexander F. Schier Forming Patterns in Development Without Morphogen Gradients: Scattered Differentiation and Sorting Out Robert R. Kay and Christopher R.L. Thompson Graded Dorsal and Differential Gene Regulation in the Drosophila Embryo Gregory T. Reeves and Angelike Stathopoulos Establishing and Interpreting Graded Sonic Hedgehog Signaling during Vertebrate Neural Tube Patterning: The Role of Negative Feedback V. Ribes and J. Briscoe Signaling Gradients During Paraxial Mesoderm Development Alexander Aulehla and Olivier Pourqui e9; Gradients in the Brain: The Control of the Development of Form and Function in the Cerebral Cortex Stephen N. Sansom and Frederick J. Livesey Morphogen Gradient Formation Marcos Gonz e1;lez-Gait e1;n, Anna Kicheva, and Ortrud Wartlick Shaping Morphogen Gradients by Proteoglycans Dong Yan and Xinhua Lin Vertebrate Limb Development: Moving From Classical Morphogen Gradients to an Integrated 4D Patterning System Jean-Denis B e9;nazet and Rolf Zeller The Measure of Success: Constraints, Objectives, and Tradeoffs in Morphogen-Mediated Patterning Arthur D. Lander, Wing-Cheong Lo, Qing Nie and Frederic Y.M.Wan Regulation of Organ Growth by Morphogen Gradients Gerald Schwank and Konrad Basler Forming and Interpreting Gradients on the Early Xenopus Embryo J.C. Smith Gradients in Planarian Regeneration and Homeostasis T. Adell, F. Cebri e0; And E. Sal f3; Gradients and the Specification of Planar Polarity in the Insect Cuticle David Strutt Systems Biology of the Self-Regulating Morphogenetic Gradient of the Xenopus Gastrula Jean-Louis Plouhinec and E.M. De Robertis Axial Patterning in Hydra Hans R. Bode Chemical Gradients and Chemotropism in Yeast Robert A. Arkowitz Models for the Generation and Interpretation of Gradients Hans Meinhardt Index