A gene expression atlas of a bicoid-depleted Drosophila embryo reveals early canalization of cell fate
In developing embryos, gene regulatory networks drive cells towards
discrete terminal fates, a process called canalization. We studied the
behavior of the anterior-posterior segmentation network in Drosophila
melanogaster embryos by depleting a key maternal input, bicoid
(bcd), and measuring gene expression patterns of the network at
cellular resolution. This method results in a gene expression atlas
containing the levels of mRNA or protein expression of 13 core
patterning genes over six time points for every cell of the blastoderm
embryo. This is the first cellular resolution dataset of a genetically
perturbed Drosophila embryo that captures all cells in 3D. We
describe the technical developments required to build this atlas and
how the method can be employed and extended by others. We also
analyze this novel dataset to characterize the degree and timing of
cell fate canalization in the segmentation network. We find that in two
layers of this gene regulatory network, following depletion of bcd,
individual cells rapidly canalize towards normal cell fates. This result
supports the hypothesis that the segmentation network directly
canalizes cell fate, rather than an alternative hypothesis whereby
cells are initially mis-specified and later eliminated by apoptosis. Our
gene expression atlas provides a high resolution picture of a classic
perturbation and will enable further computational modeling of
canalization and gene regulation in this transcriptional network.
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Text Reference
Max V Staller, Charless C Fowlkes, Meghan DJ Bragdon, Zeba Wunderlich, Javier Estrada, and Angela H DePace. A gene expression atlas of a bicoid-depleted drosophila embryo reveals early canalization of cell fate. Development, 142(3):587–596, 2015.BibTeX Reference
@article{StallerFBWED_Dev_2015,author = "Staller, Max V and Fowlkes, Charless C and Bragdon, Meghan DJ and Wunderlich, Zeba and Estrada, Javier and DePace, Angela H",
title = "A gene expression atlas of a bicoid-depleted Drosophila embryo reveals early canalization of cell fate",
journal = "Development",
volume = "142",
number = "3",
pages = "587--596",
year = "2015",
publisher = "The Company of Biologists Limited",
tag = "biological_images"
}