TY - JOUR T1 - MorphoGraphX 2.0: Providing context for biological image analysis with positional information JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2021.08.12.456042 SP - 2021.08.12.456042 AU - Soeren Strauss AU - Adam Runions AU - Brendan Lane AU - Dennis Eschweiler AU - Namrata Bajpai AU - Nicola Trozzi AU - Anne-Lise Routier-Kierzkowska AU - Saiko Yoshida AU - Sylvia Rodrigues da Silveira AU - Athul Vijayan AU - Rachele Tofanelli AU - Mateusz Majda AU - Emillie Echevin AU - Constance Le Gloanec AU - Hana Bertrand-Rakusova AU - Milad Adibi AU - Kay Schneitz AU - George Bassel AU - Daniel Kierzkowski AU - Johannes Stegmaier AU - Miltos Tsiantis AU - Richard S. Smith Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/08/13/2021.08.12.456042.abstract N2 - Positional information is a central concept in developmental biology. In developing organs, positional information can be idealized as a local coordinate system that arises from morphogen gradients controlled by organizers at key locations. This offers a plausible mechanism for the integration of the molecular networks operating in individual cells into the spatially-coordinated multicellular responses necessary for the organization of emergent forms. Understanding how positional cues guide morphogenesis requires the quantification of gene expression and growth dynamics in the context of their underlying coordinate systems. Here we present recent advances in the MorphoGraphX software (Barbier de Reuille et al. eLife 2015;4:e05864) that implement a generalized framework to annotate developing organs with local coordinate systems. These coordinate systems introduce an organ-centric spatial context to microscopy data, allowing gene expression and growth to be quantified and compared in the context of the positional information thought to control them.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -