Patterning and growth control in vivo by an engineered GFP gradient
More about Open Access at the CrickAuthors list
Kristina Stapornwongkul Marc De Gennes Luca Cocconi Guillaume Salbreux Jean-Paul VincentAbstract
Morphogen gradients provide positional information during development. To uncover the minimal requirements for morphogen gradient formation, we have engineered a synthetic morphogen in wing primordia. We show that an inert protein, green fluorescent protein (GFP), can form a detectable diffusion-based gradient in the presence of surface-associated anti-GFP nanobodies, which modulate the gradient by trapping the ligand and limiting leakage from the tissue. We next fused anti-GFP nanobodies to the receptors of Dpp, a natural morphogen, to render them responsive to extracellular GFP. In the presence of these engineered receptors, GFP could replace Dpp to organize patterning and growth in vivo. Concomitant expression of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored nonsignaling receptors further improved patterning, to near-wild-type quality. Theoretical arguments suggest that GPI anchorage could be important for these receptors to expand the gradient length scale while at the same time reducing leakage.
Journal details
Journal Science
Volume 370
Issue number 6514
Pages 321-327
Available online
Publication date
Full text links
Publisher website (DOI) 10.1126/science.abb8205
Europe PubMed Central 33060356
Pubmed 33060356