Quantitative data from the Drosophila wing imaginal disc reveals that the amplitude of the Decapentaplegic (Dpp) morphogen gradient increases continuously. It is an open question how cells can determine their relative position within a domain based on a continuously increasing gradient. Here we show that pre-steady state diffusion-based dispersal of morphogens results in a zone within the growi...

Morphogens control patterns of transcription in development, often by establishing concentration gradients of a single transcriptional activator. However, many morphogens, including Hedgehog, create opposing activator and repressor gradients (OARGs). In contrast to single activator gradients, it is not well understood how OARGs control transcriptional patterns. We present a general thermodynami...

Peter A. Lawrence* and Gary Struhl† Epigenesis, at least in Drosophila, depends on three steps which interlock and overlap; we simplify and refer *Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology to these as the “central dogma.” First, positional information in the form of morphogen gradients allocates Hills Road Cambridge CB2 2QH cells into nonoverlapping sets, each set founding a comp...

One of the many ways cells transmit information within their volume is through steady spatial gradients of different proteins. However, the mechanism through which such single-cell gradients form is not yet fully understood. We first demonstrate that one of the models for gradient formation, based on differential diffusion, is limited to proteins with large ratios of their diffusion constants o...