@article{104806,
  author = {Heath E. Johnson and Yogesh Goyal and Nicole L. Pannucci and Trudi Sch{\"u}pbach and Stanislav Y. Shvartsman and Jared E. Toettcher},
  title = {The spatiotemporal limits of developmental Erk signaling},
  abstract = { <div id="abssec0010">
	<p id="abspara0010">
		Animal development is characterized by signaling events that occur at precise locations and times within the embryo, but determining when and where such precision is needed for proper embryogenesis~has been a long-standing challenge. Here we address this question for extracellular signal regulated kinase (Erk) signaling, a key developmental patterning cue. We describe an optogenetic system for activating Erk with high spatiotemporal precision in~vivo. Implementing this system in <em>Drosophila</em>, we find that embryogenesis is remarkably robust to ectopic Erk signaling, except from 1 to 4~hr post-fertilization, when perturbing the spatial extent of Erk pathway activation leads to dramatic disruptions of patterning and morphogenesis. Later in development, the effects of ectopic signaling are buffered, at least in part, by combinatorial mechanisms. Our approach can be used to systematically probe the differential contributions of the Ras/Erk pathway and concurrent signals, leading to a more quantitative understanding of developmental signaling.
	</p>
</div>
 },
  year = {2017},
  journal = {Developmental Cell},
  volume = {40},
  pages = {185-192},
  url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1534580716308668},
  language = {eng},
}