Dpp controls growth and patterning in Drosophila wing precursors through distinct modes of action
- University of Zurich, Switzerland
- The Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom
- Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, Switzerland
Abstract
Dpp, a member of the BMP family, is a morphogen that specifies positional information in Drosophila wing precursors. In this tissue, Dpp expressed along the anterior-posterior boundary forms a concentration gradient that controls the expression domains of target genes, which in turn specify the position of wing veins. Dpp also promotes growth in this tissue. The relationship between the spatio-temporal profile of Dpp signalling and growth has been the subject of debate, which has intensified recently with the suggestion that the stripe of Dpp is dispensable for growth. With two independent conditional alleles of dpp we find that the stripe of Dpp is essential for wing growth. We then show that this requirement, but not patterning, can be fulfilled by uniform, low level, Dpp expression. Thus, the stripe of Dpp ensures that signalling remains above a pro-growth threshold, while at the same time generating a gradient that patterns cell fates.
Article and author information
Author details
Pablo Sanchez Bosch
Jean-Paul B Vincent
Funding
Medical Research Council (FC001204)
- Jean-Paul B Vincent
European Research Council (WNTEXPORT 294523)
- Jean-Paul B Vincent
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Unknown)
- Konrad Basler
Wellcome (PhD Studentship 105382/Z/14/Z)
- Ruta Ziukaite
Wellcome (FC001204)
- Jean-Paul B Vincent
Cancer Research UK (FC001204)
- Jean-Paul B Vincent
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2017, Sanchez Bosch et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Dpp controls growth and patterning in Drosophila wing precursors through distinct modes of action
eLife 6:e22546.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22546
Further reading
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- Cell Biology
- Developmental Biology
The Dpp morphogen gradient derived from the anterior stripe of cells is thought to control growth and patterning of the Drosophila wing disc. However, the spatial-temporal requirement of dpp for growth and patterning remained largely unknown. Recently, two studies re-addressed this question. By generating a conditional null allele, one study proposed that the dpp stripe is critical for patterning but not for growth (Akiyama and Gibson, 2015). In contrast, using a membrane-anchored nanobody to trap Dpp, the other study proposed that Dpp dispersal from the stripe is required for patterning and also for medial wing disc growth, at least in the posterior compartment (Harmansa et al., 2015). Thus, growth control by the Dpp morphogen gradient remains under debate. Here, by removing dpp from the stripe at different time points, we show that the dpp stripe source is indeed required for wing disc growth, also during third instar larval stages.
