Growth and Scaling in Zebrafish Fins

Date

Jun 17, 2021

Time

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Speaker

Rita Mateus

Affiliation

MPI-CBG Dresden

Series

MPI-CBG Thursday Seminar

Language

en

Main Topic

Biologie

Host

Anne Grapin-Botton

Description

Secreted growth factors can act as morphogens that form spatial concentration gradients in developing organs, thereby controlling growth and patterning. For some morphogens, adaptation of the gradients to tissue size allows morphological patterns to remain proportioned as the organs grow. In the zebrafish pectoral fin, we found that BMP signalling forms a two‑dimensional gradient. The length of the gradient scales with tissue length and its amplitude increases with fin size according to a power-law. Gradient scaling and amplitude power‑laws are signatures of growth control by time derivatives of morphogenetic signalling: cell division correlates with the fold change over time of the cellular signalling levels. We show that Smoc1 regulates BMP gradient scaling and growth in the fin. Smoc1 scales the gradient by means of a feedback loop: Smoc1 is a BMP agonist and BMP signalling represses Smoc1 expression. Our work uncovers a novel layer of morphogen regulation during vertebrate appendage development.

Last modified: Jun 18, 2021, 12:08:42 AM