RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Dynamic Hh signalling can generate temporal information during tissue patterning
JF Development
JO Development
FD The Company of Biologists Limited
SP dev176933
DO 10.1242/dev.176933
VO 146
IS 8
A1 García-Morales, Diana
A1 Navarro, Tomás
A1 Iannini, Antonella
A1 Pereira, Paulo S.
A1 Míguez, David G.
A1 Casares, Fernando
YR 2019
UL http://dev.biologists.org/content/146/8/dev176933.abstract
AB The differentiation of tissues and organs requires that cells exchange information in space and time. Spatial information is often conveyed by morphogens: molecules that disperse across receiving cells to generate signalling gradients. Cells translate such concentration gradients into space-dependent patterns of gene expression and cellular behaviour. But could morphogen gradients also convey developmental time? Here, by investigating the developmental role of Hh on a component of the Drosophila visual system, the ocellar retina, we have discovered that ocellar cells use the non-linear gradient of Hh as a temporal cue, collectively performing the biological equivalent of a mathematical logarithmic transformation. In this way, a morphogen diffusing from a non-moving source is decoded as a wave of differentiating photoreceptors that travels at constant speed throughout the retinal epithelium.