Embryogenesis inDrosophila: Can a single mechanism explain the developmental segregation of germ-line and somatic cells and their subsequent determination?

A hypothesis is presented which explains the segregation of germ cells from somatic cells, and the subsequent determination of both cell types with a single mechanism. This hypothesis is in part based on that of Meinhardt (1977) and can be summarized as follows: In the newly fertilized egg, the action of a sink in the pole plasm leads to the formation of an anterior-posterior gradient of an inhibitor. The concentration of this inhibitor in the posterior 20% of the egg is below that needed to repress synthesis of an activator. When, during the nuclear division stage, nuclei enter this posterior region, synthesis of the activator begins. As the activator is autocatalytic, this leads to the formation of a peak of activator in this region; and since the activator also catalyses the synthesis of the inhibitor, a peak of inhibitor is formed in the same place. The inhibitor then diffuses anteriorly through the periplasm, forming a posterior-anterior gradient. The presence of this inhibitor in the periplasm causes the nuclei that enter the periplasm to form blastoderm cells and to take up particular segmental states appropriate to their position, while those that remain in the yolk-containing plasm develop into vitellophages. The action of the sink in the pole plasm is postulated to result in the formation of the pole cells, and subsequently to direct some of these into forming cells of the germ-line.