The dorsoventral (DV) patterning of the Drosophila embryo depends on the nuclear localization gradient of Dorsal (Dl), a protein related to the mammalian NF-B transcription factors. Current understanding of how the Dl gradient works has been derived from studies of its transcriptional interpretation, but the gradient itself has not been quantified. In particular, it is not known whether the Dl gradient is stable or dynamic during the DV patterning of the embryo. To address this question, we developed a mathematical model of the Dl gradient and constrained its parameters by experimental data. Based on our computational analysis, we predict that the Dl gradient is dynamic and, to a first approximation, can be described as a concentration profile with increasing amplitude and constant shape. These timedependent properties of the Dl gradient are different from those of the Bicoid and MAPK phosphorylation gradients, which pattern the anterior and terminal regions of the embryo. Specifically, the gradient of the nuclear levels of Bicoid is stable, whereas the pattern of MAPK phosphorylation changes in both shape and amplitude. We attribute these striking differences in the dynamics of maternal morphogen gradients to the differences in the initial conditions and chemistries of the anterior, DV, and terminal systems.computational modeling ͉ Drosophila ͉ systems biology ͉ parameter estimation A tissue patterned by morphogen gradients can change its transcriptional state, grow, or deform either in response to the gradients or independently of them (1-3). When these changes are much slower than the dynamics of the gradient, a tissue responds to a stable signal. Transcriptional interpretation of such signals can rely on differences in the expression thresholds of target genes with respect to the spatially distributed repressors or activators (2, 4). A different strategy for signal interpretation is required when the formation of positional information becomes intertwined with the dynamics of the patterned system (2, 5). Here, we suggest that the dorsoventral (DV) patterning of the Drosophila embryo operates in this regime.The DV patterning of the Drosophila embryo depends on the nuclear localization gradient of Dorsal (Dl), a protein related to the NF-B family of transcription factors (6-10). Transcriptional interpretation of the Dl gradient depends on the differences in the affinities of the Dl binding sites in the Dl-target genes and several gene expression and signaling cascades initiated by Dl (6,11,12). A ventral-to-dorsal occupancy gradient of the Toll cell surface receptor provides the activating signal for the DV patterning (13). In the absence of this signal, Dl is sequestered in the cytoplasm, in complex with an inhibitory protein I-B, called Cactus (Cact) in Drosophila. In response to Toll signaling, the Dl-Cact complex dissociates, Cact is degraded, and Dl enters the nucleus to control gene expression. In the current model of DV patterning, positional information is established by the spatial pattern of Toll occ...

Biochemical interactions underlying the generation of the ventralising signal during Drosophila embryogenesis were investigated by the expression of recombinant Easter and Spätzle proteins. An active form of Easter protease cleaves the Spätzle protein, generating a carboxyterminal polypeptide fragment which, when microinjected into the perivitelline space of a spätzle deficient embryo, directs production of ventrolateral pattern elements. This Spätzle carboxyterminal fragment is a disulfide-linked dimer and modelling suggests that the core disulfide bonds and dimer arrangement of this fragment are highly similar to vertebrate nerve growth factor. Thus Spätzle is a member of a new family of neurotrophin-like signalling molecules in invertebrate development.

In Drosophila, the NF-B/REL family transcription factor, Dorsal, redistributes from the cytoplasm to nuclei, forming a concentration gradient across the dorsoventral axis of the embryo. Using live imaging techniques in conjunction with embryos expressing a chimeric Dorsal-GFP, we demonstrate that the redistribution of Dorsal from cytoplasm to nucleus is an extremely dynamic process. Nuclear Dorsal concentration changes continuously over time in all nuclei during interphase. While Dorsal appears to be nuclearly localized primarily in ventral nuclei, it is actively shuttling into and out of all nuclei, including nuclei on the dorsal side. Nuclear export is blocked by leptomycin B, a potent inhibitor of Exportin 1 (CRM1)-mediated nuclear export. We have developed a novel in vivo assay revealing the presence of a functional leucine-rich nuclear export signal within the carboxyterminal 44 amino acids of Dorsal. We also find that diffusion of Dorsal is partially constrained to cytoplasmic islands surrounding individual syncitial nuclei. A model is proposed in which the generation and maintenance of the Dorsal gradient is a consequence of an active process involving both restricted long-range diffusion and the balancing of nuclear import with nuclear export.

Drosophila melanogaster embryogenesis begins with 13 nuclear division cycles within a syncytium. This produces >6,000 nuclei that, during the next division cycle, become encased in plasma membrane in the process known as cellularization. In this study, we investigate how the secretory membrane system becomes equally apportioned among the thousands of syncytial nuclei in preparation for cellularization. Upon nuclear arrival at the cortex, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi were found to segregate among nuclei, with each nucleus becoming surrounded by a single ER/Golgi membrane system separate from adjacent ones. The nuclear-associated units of ER and Golgi across the syncytial blastoderm produced secretory products that were delivered to the plasma membrane in a spatially restricted fashion across the embryo. This occurred in the absence of plasma membrane boundaries between nuclei and was dependent on centrosome-derived microtubules. The emergence of secretory membranes that compartmentalized around individual nuclei in the syncytial blastoderm is likely to ensure that secretory organelles are equivalently partitioned among nuclei at cellularization and could play an important role in the establishment of localized gene and protein expression patterns within the early embryo.

Three serine protease zymogens, Gastrulation defective (GD), Snake (Snk) and Easter (Ea), and a nerve growth factor-like growth factor ligand precursor, Spaetzle, are required for specification of dorsal- ventral cell fate during Drosophila embryogenesis. The proteases have been proposed to function in a sequential activation cascade within the extracellular compartment called the perivitelline space. We examined biochemical interactions between these four proteins using a heterologous co-expression system. The results indicate that the three proteases do function in a sequential activation cascade, that GD becomes active and initiates the cascade and that interaction between GD and Snk is sufficient for GD to cleave itself autoproteolytically. The proteolytically active form of Ea cleaves GD at a different position, revealing biochemical feedback in the pathway. Both GD and Snk bind to heparin-Sepharose, providing a link between the pipe-defined ventral prepattern and the protease cascade. Our results suggest a model of the cascade in which initiation is by relief from inhibition, and spatial regulation of activity is due to interaction with sulfated proteoglycans.