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A new phase for scaling

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 14, page 80 (2013)Cite this article

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A good example of scaling during development is vertebrate segment formation: if experimental manipulations are made to reduce overall embryo size, the number of segments formed remains constant, but their size is reduced. This segmentation programme is known to involve oscillations in signalling pathways such as Notch, WNT and FGF in segment precursor cells termed presomitic mesoderm (PSM) cells. Any role for these oscillations in scaling was previously unknown.

Lauschke, Tsiairis et al. developed a novel ex vivo system to study properties of signalling oscillations. Using two-dimensional culturing of fragments from the posterior part of the mouse embryo, the authors were able to recapitulate oscillatory mesoderm patterning and to segment scaling in a monolayer of PSM cells.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Lauschke, V. M. Scaling of embryonic patterning based on phase-gradient encoding. Nature 19 Dec 2012 (doi:10.10.1038/nature11804)

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  1. Hannah Stower
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Stower, H. A new phase for scaling. Nat Rev Genet 14, 80 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3407

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