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Updated: May 28, 2026

Live-cell Imaging of Sensory Organ Precursor Cells in Intact Drosophila Pupae
Published on: May 27, 2011
Robust selection of sensory organ precursors by the Notch-Delta pathway
Omer Barad1, Eran Hornstein, Naama Barkai
1Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Abstract:
The patterning of multicellular organisms is robust to environmental, genetic, or stochastic fluctuations. Mathematical modeling is instrumental in identifying mechanisms supporting this robustness. The principle of lateral inhibition, whereby a differentiating cell inhibits its neighbors from adopting the same fate, is frequently used for selecting a single cell out of a cluster of equipotent cells. For example, Sensory Organ Precursors (SOP) in the fruit-fly Drosophila implement lateral inhibition by activating the Notch-Delta pathway. We discuss parameters affecting the rate of errors in this process, and the mechanism (inhibitory cis interaction between Notch and Delta) predicted to reduce this error.
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