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Research Highlight : Morphogen Signaling—Filopodia Pave the Way
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Rajprasad Loganathan
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The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
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Department of Cell biology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
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rlogana2@jhmi.edu
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Morphogen signaling is critical for pattern formation during embryogenesis. The concept of morphogens originated from the results of classic embryology experiments performed nearly a century ago by Morgan and Boveri (Lawrence, 2001). A century of work, and still ongoing, morphogens are understood to be signaling molecules diffusing out in a monotonic concentration gradient from the source cells, and influencing the developmental fate of recipient cells in a strictly concentration-dependent manner. Despite our challenges in precisely defining the core set of features that characterize morphogens, the concept of morphogen signaling remains a cornerstone in developmental biology that has led to major breakthroughs in our understanding of the cell biology of animal development.
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