ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2009
Genetic and cytological evidence that heterocyst patterning is regulated by inhibitor gradients that promote activator decay.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed.
- Coordination of NProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Co-option of an ancestral peptidase controls developmental patterning in multicellular cyanobacteria.iScience · 2026Article
- Adaptive pangenomic remodeling in the Azolla cyanobiont amid a transient microbiome.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- A proteolytic pathway coordinates cell division and heterocyst differentiation in the cyanobacteriumProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Terminal heterocyst differentiation in the Anabaena patA mutant as a result of post-transcriptional modifications and molecular leakage.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Mathematical models of nitrogen-fixing cell patterns in filamentous cyanobacteria.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Systems for intricate patterning of the vertebrate anatomy.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2021Article
- Inactivation of Three RG(S/T)GR Pentapeptide-Containing Negative Regulators of HetR Results in Lethal Differentiation ofLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- HetL, HetR and PatS form a reaction-diffusion system to control pattern formation in the cyanobacteriumeLife · 2020Article
- 3D biofilms: in search of the polysaccharides holding together lichen symbioses.FEMS microbiology letters · 2020Review
- Carbon Transfer from the Host Diatom Enables Fast Growth and High Rate of NPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Manipulation of Pattern of Cell Differentiation in aLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- Phenotypic Assessment Suggests Multiple Start Codons for HetN, an Inhibitor of Heterocyst Differentiation, in Anabaena sp. Strain PCC 7120.Journal of bacteriology · 2018Article
- Robust stochastic Turing patterns in the development of a one-dimensional cyanobacterial organism.PLoS biology · 2018Article
- The heterocyst regulatory protein HetP and its homologs modulate heterocyst commitment inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2016Article
- Formation and maintenance of nitrogen-fixing cell patterns in filamentous cyanobacteria.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2016Article
- Mutation of the murC and murB Genes Impairs Heterocyst Differentiation in Anabaena sp. Strain PCC 7120.Journal of bacteriology · 2016Article
- ABC Transporter Required for Intercellular Transfer of Developmental Signals in a Heterocystous Cyanobacterium.Journal of bacteriology · 2015Article
- Spatial fluctuations in expression of the heterocyst differentiation regulatory gene hetR in Anabaena filaments.PLoS genetics · 2015Article
- Modelling from the experimental developmental biologists viewpoint.Seminars in cell & developmental biology · 2014Review
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2 authors.
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Abstract
The formation of a pattern of differentiated cells from a group of seemingly equivalent, undifferentiated cells is a central paradigm of developmental biology. Several species of filamentous cyanobacteria differentiate nitrogen-fixing heterocysts at regular intervals along unbranched filaments to form a periodic pattern of two distinct cell types. This patterning has been used to exemplify application of the activator-inhibitor model to periodic patterns in biology. The activator-inhibitor model proposes that activators and inhibitors of differentiation diffuse from source cells to form concentration gradients that in turn mediate patterning, but direct visualization of concentration gradients of activators and inhibitors has been difficult. Here we show that the periodic pattern of heterocysts produced by cyanobacteria relies on two inhibitors of heterocyst differentiation, PatS and HetN, in a manner consistent with the predictions of the activator-inhibitor model. Concentration gradients of the activator, HetR, were observed adjacent to heterocysts, the natural source of PatS and HetN, as well as adjacent to vegetative cells that were manipulated to overexpress a gene encoding either of the inhibitors. Gradients of HetR relied on posttranslational decay of HetR. Deletion of both patS and hetN genes prevented the formation of gradients of HetR, and a derivative of the inhibitors was shown to promote decay of HetR in a concentration-dependent manner. Our results provide strong support for application of the activator-inhibitor model to heterocyst patterning and, more generally, the formation of periodic patterns in biological systems.
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