in 1909, several years before the famous `organizer’ experiments of spemann and mangold, ethel browne demonstrated induction of a secondary axis in hydra by grafting a hypostome. based on this and subsequent work, in the late sixties, lewis wolpert proposed the theory of morphogen gradients and positional information. we have studied secondary axis induction by hypostome and foot tissue using t...

The hormetic morphogen theory of curvature (Fosslien 2009) proposes that hormetic morphogen concentration gradients modulate the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by cells along the gradients (field cells) and thus regulate their proliferation and induce curvature such as vascular wall curvature; however, it is unclear whether such morphogen gradients can also determine the histological...

Much recent attention has focused on the robustness of morphogen gradients, i.e. the ability of such gradients to resist change in the face of genetic and environmental perturbations. It has been suggested that some of the complex regulatory interactions found in morphogen gradients—feedback control of morphogen responsiveness, countergradients of secreted inhibitors, etc.—exist to enhance robu...

Fundamental biological processes of development of tissues and organs in multicellular organisms are governed by various signaling molecules, which are called morphogens. It is known that spatial and temporal variations in the concentration profiles of signaling molecules, which are frequently referred as morphogen gradients, lead to a cell differentiation via activating specific genes in a con...