Jaeger Johannes, Reinitz John
Laboratory of Development and Evolution, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
Bioessays. 2006 Nov;28(11):1102-11. doi: 10.1002/bies.20494.
Morphogenetic fields are among the most fundamental concepts of embryology. However, they are also among the most ill-defined, since they consist of dynamic regulatory processes whose exact nature remains elusive. In order to achieve a more rigorous definition of a developmental field, Lewis Wolpert introduced the concept of positional information illustrated by his French Flag model. Here we argue that Wolpert's positional information - a static coordinate system defining a field - lacks essential properties of the original field concept. We show how data-driven mathematical modeling approaches now enable us to study regulatory processes in a way that is qualitatively different from our previous level of understanding. As an example, we review our recent analysis of segmentation gene expression in the blastoderm embryo of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Based on this analysis, we propose a revised French Flag, which incorporates the dynamic, feedback-driven nature of pattern formation in the Drosophila blastoderm.
形态发生场是胚胎学中最基本的概念之一。然而，它们也是定义最不明确的概念之一，因为它们由动态调节过程组成，而这些过程的确切性质仍然难以捉摸。为了更严格地定义发育场，刘易斯·沃尔珀特引入了以他的法国国旗模型为例说明的位置信息概念。在这里，我们认为沃尔珀特的位置信息——一个定义场的静态坐标系——缺乏原始场概念的基本属性。我们展示了数据驱动的数学建模方法现在如何使我们能够以一种与我们以前的理解水平在质上不同的方式研究调节过程。作为一个例子，我们回顾了我们最近对果蝇黑腹果蝇胚盘胚胎中分割基因表达的分析。基于这一分析，我们提出了一个修订版的法国国旗模型，该模型纳入了果蝇胚盘中图案形成的动态、反馈驱动性质。
