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This work was funded by MINECO and the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) of Spain, co-financed by FEDER funds (EU) through grants BFU2012-34324 and BFU2015-66040-P to FC, MDM-2016-0687 in which FC is participant researcher, and TIN2017-89842 P in which MCL is participant researcher.

Analysis of institutional authors

Cantisan-Gomez, JAuthor

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Article

A Toggle-Switch and a Feed-Forward Loop Engage in the Control of the Drosophila Retinal Determination Gene Network

Publicated to:Frontiers In Ecology And Evolution. 7 (221): 221- - 2019-06-12 7(221), DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00221

Authors: Sánchez-Aragón, M; Cantisán-Gómez, J; Luque, CM; Brás-Pereira, C; Lopes, CS; Lemos, MC; Casares, F

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Abstract

Dipterans show a striking range of eye sizes, shapes, and functional specializations. Their eye is of the compound type, the most frequent eye architecture in nature. The development of this compound eye has been most studied in Drosophila melanogaster. The early development of the Drosophila eye is under the control of a gene regulatory network of transcription factors and signaling molecules called the retinal determination gene network (RDGN). Nodes in this network have been found to be involved not only in the development of different eye types in invertebrates and vertebrates, but also of other organs. Here we have analyzed the network properties in detail. First, we have generated quantitative expression profiles for a number of the key RDGN transcription factors, at a single-cell resolution. With these profiles, and applying a correlation analysis, we revisited several of the links in the RDGN. Our study uncovers a new link, that we confirm experimentally, between the transcription factors Hth/Meis1 and Optix/Six3 and indicates that, at least during the period of eye differentiation, positive feedback regulation from Eya and Dac on the Pax6 gene Ey is not operating. From this revised RDGN we derive a simplified gene network that we model mathematically. This network integrates three basic motifs: a coherent feedforward loop, a toggle-switch and a positive autoregulation which, together with the input from the Dpp/BMP2 signaling molecule, recapitulate the gene expression profiles obtained experimentally, while ensuring a robust transition from progenitor cells into retinal precursors.

Keywords

Cell specificationCell-proliferationDrosophilaDual roleExpressionEye developmentFly eyeGene regulatory networksHomothoraxLeg developmentModelingNoiseQuantitative gene expressionRegulatory networksSine-oculisTwin-of-eyeless

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Frontiers In Ecology And Evolution due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2019, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Ecology.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-06-06:

  • WoS: 1
  • Scopus: 1
  • OpenCitations: 1

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-06:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 19.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 19 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 2.1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Portugal.