The Formation of the Bicoid Morphogen Gradient Requires Protein Movement from Anteriorly Localized mRNA

New quantitative data show that the Bicoid morphogen gradient is generated from a dynamic localized source and that protein gradient formation requires protein movement along the anterior-posterior axis

Auxin Cell Biology in Plant Pattern Formation

Auxin has always been implicated in a vast array of plant processes, but concomitant with a more detailed understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying its biosynthesis, transport and perception, it has become increasingly clear that auxin has also instructive roles in plant pattern formation. Moreover, it turns out that in a multitude of instances, from early body axes establishment to organogenesis in shoot and root, plant tissue patterns owe their robust flexibility in part to feedback interactions involving auxin. Higher resolutions cell biology, molecular genetics and genomics as well as live imaging now are used together to define the parameters needed to generate more detailed and precise mathematical models of plant development.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

The EMBO Journal Vol.17 No.5 pp.1405–1411, 1998 The Arabidopsis gene MONOPTEROS encodes a

transcription factor mediating embryo axis formation and vascular developmen

Control of leaf vascular patterning by polar auxin transport

The formation of the leaf vascular pattern has fascinated biologists for centuries. In the early leaf primordium, complex networks of procambial cells emerge from homogeneous subepidermal tissue. The molecular nature of the underlying positional information is unknown, but various lines of evidence implicate gradually restricted transport routes of the plant hormone auxin in defining sites of procambium formation. Here we show that a crucial member of the AtPIN family of auxin-efflux-associated proteins, AtPIN1, is expressed prior to pre-procambial and procambial cell fate markers in domains that become restricted toward sites of procambium formation. Subcellular AtPIN1 polarity indicates that auxin is directed to distinct “convergence points” in the epidermis, from where it defines the positions of major veins. Integrated polarities in all emerging veins indicate auxin drainage toward pre-existing veins, but veins display divergent polarities as they become connected at both ends. Auxin application and transport inhibition reveal that convergence point positioning and AtPIN1 expression domain dynamics are self-organizing, auxin-transport-dependent processes. We derive a model for self-regulated, reiterative patterning of all vein orders and postulate at its onset a common epidermal auxin-focusing mechanism for major-vein positioning and phyllotactic patterning