New NATURE CELL BIOLOGY paper out !

A new paper in Nature CELL BIOLOGY !

During development, morphogen gradients encode positional information to pattern morphological structures during organogenesis. Some gradients, like that of Dpp in the fly wing, remain proportional to the size of growing organs - that is, they scale. Gradient scaling keeps morphological patterns proportioned in organs of different sizes.

In this new paper, Marisa et al. show a new mechanism of scaling that ensures that, when the gradient is smaller than the organ, cell death trims the developing tissue to match the size of the gradient. Scaling is controlled by molecular associations between Dally and Pentagone, known factors involved in scaling, and a key factor that mediates cell death, Flower. They show that Flower activity in gradient expansion is not dominated by cell death, but by the activity of Dally/Pentagone on scaling.

Finally they show a potential connection between scaling and cell death that may uncover a molecular toolbox hijacked by tumours.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-022-00858-3

Nature Cell Biology
DOI: 10.1038/s41556-022-00858-3