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Morphogens: how big is the big picture?

Nature Cell Biology volume 3, pages E151–E154 (2001)Cite this article

Morphogens are in the front line just now. Here I trace how the concept of a morphogen has evolved over the past 100 years and step a little beyond what we already know.

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Figure 1: Patterning and morphogen expression.
Figure 2: Different morphogens may determine pattern and polarity in the segment.
Figure 3: Genes determine shape and proportion with precision.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Klaus Sander for years of education.

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  1. the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QH, UK

    Peter A. Lawrence

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Lawrence, P. Morphogens: how big is the big picture?. Nat Cell Biol 3, E151–E154 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35083096

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