Regulatory process for organ scaling discovered
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - 17:00
in Biology & Nature
A new study has shed light on the process by which fruit flies develop with their body proportions remaining constant. The study, conducted by the research group of Professor Markus Affolter at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and Sven Bergmann's group at the Department of Medical Genetics, University of Lausanne, has demonstrated that the morphogen Dpp and the feedback regulator Pentagone are key factors responsible for proportional tissue growth in wings of a fruit fly. This process keeps the body plan of the fruit fly Drosophila constant. Their research results, published October 25 in the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology, might also be important for organ growth in other organisms.