期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1986
卷号：83
期号：3
页码：679-683
DOI：10.1073/pnas.83.3.679
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Thresholds are frequently thought to be involved in the development of discrete structures in response to a shallow, monotonic gradient of morphogenetic information. We propose a mechanism for threshold setting that incorporates two essential components: (i) determinator genes that produce intracellular "determinators" that control cellular differentiation during development and (ii) intracellular "inhibitors" that bind tightly and specifically to the determinators to form "determinator-inhibitor pairs" that are inactive with respect to determinator function. The interaction of these components amplifies the intracellular response to an extra-cellular morphogen, thus producing a sharp transition in determinator gene activity. This system could operate at either the RNA level with the determinator-inhibitor pairs taking the form of sense-antisense RNAs or at the protein level via a competitive inhibition mechanism. In either case this model suggests a possible role for pseudogenes in development as a source of the intracellular inhibitors.
