3D Morphology and Gene Expression in the Drosophila Blastoderm at Cellular Resolution II: Dynamics
Background
To accurately describe gene expression and computationally model animal
transcriptional networks, it is essential to determine the changing locations
of cells in developing embryos.
Results
Using automated image analysis methods, we provide the first quantitative
description of temporal changes in morphology and gene expression at cellular
resolution in whole embryos, using the Drosophila blastoderm as a model.
Analyses based on both fixed and live embryos reveal complex, previously
undetected three-dimensional changes in nuclear density patterns caused by
nuclear movements prior to gastrulation. Gene expression patterns move, in
part, with these changes in morphology, but additional spatial shifts in
expression patterns are also seen, supporting a previously proposed model of
pattern dynamics based on the induction and inhibition of gene expression. We
show that mutations that disrupt either the anterior/posterior (a/p) or the
dorsal/ventral (d/v) transcriptional cascades alter morphology and gene
expression along both the a/p and d/v axes in a way suggesting that these two
patterning systems interact via both transcriptional and morphological
mechanisms.
Conclusion
Our work establishes a new strategy for measuring temporal changes in the
locations of cells and gene expression patterns that uses fixed cell material
and computational modeling. It also provides a coordinate framework for the
blastoderm embryo that will allow increasingly accurate spatio-temporal
modeling of both the transcriptional control network and morphogenesis.
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Text Reference
Soile Keränen, Charless Fowlkes, Cris Luengo Hendriks, Damir Sudar, David Knowles, Jitendra Malik, and Mark Biggin. 3d morphology and gene expression in the drosophila blastoderm at cellular resolution ii: dynamics. Genome Biology, 2006.BibTeX Reference
@article{Keranen_GenomeBio_2006,author = {Ker{\"a}nen, Soile and Fowlkes, Charless and Hendriks, Cris Luengo and Sudar, Damir and Knowles, David and Malik, Jitendra and Biggin, Mark},
title = "3D Morphology and Gene Expression in the Drosophila Blastoderm at Cellular Resolution II: Dynamics",
journal = "Genome Biology",
volume = "7:R124",
year = "2006",
tag = "biological_images"
}