Precision and reproducibility of macroscopic developmental patterns

Developmental processes in multicellular organisms occur far from equilibrium, yet produce complex patterns with astonishing reproducibility. We measure the precision and reproducibility of bilaterally symmetric fly wings across the natural range of genetic and environmental conditions and find that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2013-09
Main Authors: Abouchar, Laurent, Petkova, Mariela D, Steinhardt, Cynthia R, Gregor, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Embryos
Fruit flies
Reproducibility
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Developmental processes in multicellular organisms occur far from equilibrium, yet produce complex patterns with astonishing reproducibility. We measure the precision and reproducibility of bilaterally symmetric fly wings across the natural range of genetic and environmental conditions and find that wing patterns are specified with identical spatial precision and are reproducible to within a single cell width. The early fly embryo operates at a similar degree of reproducibility, suggesting that the overall spatial precision of morphogenesis in Drosophila performs at the single cell level, arguably the physical limit of what a biological system can achieve.
ISSN:2331-8422