Summary
The Drosophila gene gurken participates in a signaling process that occurs between the germ line and the somatic cells (follicle cells) of the ovary. This process is required for correct patterning of the dorsoventral axis of both the egg and the embryo. gurken produces a spatially localized transcript which encodes a TGF-alpha-like molecule (Neuman-Silberberg and Schupbach, Cell 75, 165–174, 1993). Mutations in gurken cause a ventralized phenotype in egg and embryo. To determine whether the gurken gene product plays an instructive role in dorsoventral patterning, we constructed females containing extra copies of a gurken transgene. Such females produce dorsalized eggs and embryos, which is expected if gurken acts as a limiting factor in the dorsoventral patterning process. In addition, the expression pattern of the gene rhomboid in the follicle cells is altered in ovaries of females containing extra copies of gurken. Our results indicate that changing gurken dosage in otherwise wild-type ovaries is sufficient to alter the number of somatic follicle cells directed to the dorsal fate. Therefore the gurken-torpedo signaling process plays an instructive role in oogenesis. It induces dorsal cell fates in the follicle cell epithelium and it controls the production of maternal components that will direct the embryonic dorsoventral pattern after fertilization.
Article navigation
Related articles
Cited by...
More in this TOC section
Similar articles
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
Primer – From Drosophila segmentation to human cancer therapy
A new Primer from Philip W. Ingham explores the fundamental impact of developmental biology on our understanding and therapeutic control of the hedgehog signalling pathway.
This Primer forms part of our collection of review articles advocating for the wider importance of developmental biology – see more articles here.
Review – A centrosomal view of CNS growth
Elisa Martí and colleagues discuss the multiple roles played by centrosomes during embryonic growth of the vertebrate central nervous system, highlighting the links between centrosome dysfunction and microcephaly.
Meeting report – From stem cells to human development
In September, Development held the third of its highly successful series of meetings focusing on human developmental biology. The Node ran a competition to find a meeting reporter who would share their experiences of the meeting in exchange for free registration. Competition winner Antonio Barral Gil, a PhD student in Miguel Manzanares’ Lab at CNIC in Madrid, now recollects an enriching few days in the heart of the English countryside.
Travelling Fellowship – Developing a framework of support
Peter Baillie-Johnson was working on the generation of elongating gastruloids to mimic the first stages of axial elongation in the mouse embryo, but was limited by aggregates adhering to the surface of culture plates. A Travelling Fellowship from Development allowed Peter to visit Matthias Lutolf in Switzerland, whose lab specialises in the use of engineered PEG hydrogels that can be produced to defined physicochemical specifications. There, Peter optimised a protocol for producing gastruloids and developed a strategy for individually embedding them in small volumes of PEG hydrogels. Read more about his story here.
Where could you research take you? Join Peter and apply for the next round of Travelling Fellowships from Development by 30 November 2018.
Workshop – Chromatin-based regulation of development
We are pleased to announce a Workshop, organised by Benoit Bruneau and Joanna Wysocka, focusing on the field of chromatin biology and its potential for revealing exciting new insights into developmental processes. The Workshop will be held in April 2019 at Wiston House, UK. Ten funded early-career places are available - apply here before 21 December 2018.
preLights – Three-dimensional tissue stiffness mapping in the mouse embryo supports durotaxis during early limb bud morphogenesis
Natalie Dye highlights a recent preprint from Yu Sun and colleagues, describing how a new way of measuring the mechanical properties of bulk tissues in vivo identifies a stiffness gradient in the developing limb that correlates with patterns of cell migration.
Catch up with recent preLights selected for the developmental biology community in our latest Table of Contents.
Articles of interest in our sister journals
Mesenchymal stem cell mechanotransduction is cAMP dependent and regulated by adenylyl cyclase 6 and the primary cilium
Gillian P. Johnson, Elena Stavenschi, Kian F. Eichholz, Michele A. Corrigan, Sean Fair, David A. Hoey. J Cell Sci 2018 131: jcs222737
Rab34 small GTPase is required for Hedgehog signaling and an early step of ciliary vesicle formation in mouse
Shouying Xu, Yang Liu, Qing Meng, Baolin Wang. J Cell Sci 2018 131: jcs213710