Creating Gradients by Morphogen Shuttling. Naama Barkai. Weizman Institute, Rehovot, Israel.

   Morphogen gradients are used to pattern a field of cells according to concentration profile of a signaling molecule. I will discuss mechanisms that buffers the shape of those gradients against variations in biochemical parameters and in the size of the patterned tissue. In particular, I will discuss the shuttling mechanism, which functions when the morphogen is produced in a broad domain. I will describe theoretical properties of this mechanisms, and present experimental evidence supporting its function in several early developmental processes.