Figure 5

Simulating the effect of embryo geometry on Bcd gradient profiles. (A) A heat map of local total Bcd concentration on the midsagittal plane of a simulated embryo at nuclear cycle 14. The shape of the simulated embryo is based on the experimentally observed average wt embryos (Fig. 4B) with an asymmetric geometry on the dorsal and ventral sides (see Methods for details). Color bar represents normalized local total Bcd concentration. (B and C) Heat maps of local total Bcd concentration of the same simulated embryo on transverse planes at x_Otd/L (panel B) and x_Hb/L (panel C). Color bar represents normalized local total Bcd concentration only showing the range for the cortical layer relevant to our discussions. (D and E) Nuclear Bcd concentration profiles from the cortical layer of the dorsal (blue) and ventral (red) sides of the simulated embryo, measured as a function of either projected distance x from the anterior (panel D) or contour distance c (panel E). See text and Methods for further details.