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ReportsKinetics of Morphogen Gradient Formation  
In the developing fly wing, secreted morphogens such as Decapentaplegic (Dpp) and Wingless (Wg) form gradients of concentration providing positional information. Dpp forms a longer-range gradient than Wg. To understand how the range is controlled, we measured the four key kinetic parameters governing morphogen spreading: the production rate, the effective diffusion coefficient, the degradation rate, and the immobile fraction. The four parameters had different values for Dpp versus Wg. In addition, Dynamin-dependent endocytosis was required for spreading of Dpp, but not Wg. Thus, the cellular mechanisms of Dpp and Wingless spreading are different: Dpp spreading requires endocytic, intracellular trafficking.
1 Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauer Strasse 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany. * These authors contributed equally to this work.
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Present address: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. 
Present address: Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. 
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: 
Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
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