RESUMEN
We have analyzed the link between the gene regulation and growth during the early stages of flower development in Arabidopsis. Starting from time-lapse images, we generated a 4D atlas of early flower development, including cell lineage, cellular growth rates, and the expression patterns of regulatory genes. This information was introduced in MorphoNet, a web-based platform. Using computational models, we found that the literature-based molecular network only explained a minority of the gene expression patterns. This was substantially improved by adding regulatory hypotheses for individual genes. Correlating growth with the combinatorial expression of multiple regulators led to a set of hypotheses for the action of individual genes in morphogenesis. This identified the central factor LEAFY as a potential regulator of heterogeneous growth, which was supported by quantifying growth patterns in a leafy mutant. By providing an integrated view, this atlas should represent a fundamental step toward mechanistic models of flower development.
Asunto(s)
Arabidopsis/crecimiento & desarrollo , Arabidopsis/genética , Flores/crecimiento & desarrollo , Flores/genética , Arabidopsis/citología , Proteínas de Arabidopsis/genética , Proteínas de Arabidopsis/metabolismo , Tipificación del Cuerpo/genética , Linaje de la Célula/genética , Flores/anatomía & histología , Flores/citología , Regulación del Desarrollo de la Expresión Génica , Regulación de la Expresión Génica de las Plantas , Redes Reguladoras de Genes , Genes de Plantas , Morfogénesis/genética , Mutación/genéticaRESUMEN
Marine invertebrate ascidians display embryonic reproducibility: Their early embryonic cell lineages are considered invariant and are conserved between distantly related species, despite rapid genomic divergence. Here, we address the drivers of this reproducibility. We used light-sheet imaging and automated cell segmentation and tracking procedures to systematically quantify the behavior of individual cells every 2 minutes during Phallusia mammillata embryogenesis. Interindividual reproducibility was observed down to the area of individual cell contacts. We found tight links between the reproducibility of embryonic geometries and asymmetric cell divisions, controlled by differential sister cell inductions. We combined modeling and experimental manipulations to show that the area of contact between signaling and responding cells is a key determinant of cell communication. Our work establishes the geometric control of embryonic inductions as an alternative to classical morphogen gradients and suggests that the range of cell signaling sets the scale at which embryonic reproducibility is observed.
