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Main Menu - Block
- Overview
- Anatomy and Histology
- Cryo-Electron Microscopy
- Electron Microscopy
- Flow Cytometry
- Gene Targeting and Transgenics
- Immortalized Cell Line Culture
- Integrative Imaging
- Invertebrate Shared Resource
- Janelia Experimental Technology
- Mass Spectrometry
- Media Prep
- Molecular Genomics
- Primary & iPS Cell Culture
- Project Pipeline Support
- Project Technical Resources
- Quantitative Genomics
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- Scientific Computing Systems
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Note: Research in this publication was not performed at Janelia.
Abstract
It is now widely recognized that as cells of developing tissues transition through successive states of decreasing pluripotency into a state of terminal differentiation, they undergo significant changes in their gene expression profiles. Interestingly, these successive states of increasing differentiation are marked by the spatially and temporally restricted expression of sets of transcription factors. Each wave of transcription factors not only signals the arrival of a given stage in cellular differentiation, but it is also necessary for the activation of the next set of transcription factors, creating the appearance of a smooth, directed, and deterministic genetic program of cellular differentiation. Until recently, however, it was largely unknown which genes, besides each other, these transcription factors were activating. Thus, the molecular definition of any given step of differentiation, and how it gave rise to the following step remained unclear. Recent advances in transcriptomics, bioinformatics, and molecular genetics resulted in the identification of numerous transcription factor target genes (TGs). These advances have opened the door to using similar approaches in developmental biology to understand what the transcriptional cascades of cellular differentiation might be. Using the development of the Drosophila eye as a model system, we discuss the role of transcription factors and their TGs in cell fate specification and terminal differentiation.