---
_id: '9226'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: 'Half a century after Lewis Wolpert''s seminal conceptual advance on how cellular
    fates distribute in space, we provide a brief historical perspective on how the
    concept of positional information emerged and influenced the field of developmental
    biology and beyond. We focus on a modern interpretation of this concept in terms
    of information theory, largely centered on its application to cell specification
    in the early Drosophila embryo. We argue that a true physical variable (position)
    is encoded in local concentrations of patterning molecules, that this mapping
    is stochastic, and that the processes by which positions and corresponding cell
    fates are determined based on these concentrations need to take such stochasticity
    into account. With this approach, we shift the focus from biological mechanisms,
    molecules, genes and pathways to quantitative systems-level questions: where does
    positional information reside, how it is transformed and accessed during development,
    and what fundamental limits it is subject to?'
acknowledgement: This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation,
  through the Center for the Physics of Biological Function (PHY-1734030), by the
  National Institutes of Health (R01GM097275) and by the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen
  Forschung (FWF P28844). Deposited in PMC for release after 12 months.
article_number: dev176065
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Gašper
  full_name: Tkačik, Gašper
  id: 3D494DCA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Tkačik
  orcid: 0000-0002-6699-1455
- first_name: Thomas
  full_name: Gregor, Thomas
  last_name: Gregor
citation:
  ama: Tkačik G, Gregor T. The many bits of positional information. <i>Development</i>.
    2021;148(2). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.176065">10.1242/dev.176065</a>
  apa: Tkačik, G., &#38; Gregor, T. (2021). The many bits of positional information.
    <i>Development</i>. Company of Biologists. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.176065">https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.176065</a>
  chicago: Tkačik, Gašper, and Thomas Gregor. “The Many Bits of Positional Information.”
    <i>Development</i>. Company of Biologists, 2021. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.176065">https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.176065</a>.
  ieee: G. Tkačik and T. Gregor, “The many bits of positional information,” <i>Development</i>,
    vol. 148, no. 2. Company of Biologists, 2021.
  ista: Tkačik G, Gregor T. 2021. The many bits of positional information. Development.
    148(2), dev176065.
  mla: Tkačik, Gašper, and Thomas Gregor. “The Many Bits of Positional Information.”
    <i>Development</i>, vol. 148, no. 2, dev176065, Company of Biologists, 2021, doi:<a
    href="https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.176065">10.1242/dev.176065</a>.
  short: G. Tkačik, T. Gregor, Development 148 (2021).
date_created: 2021-03-07T23:01:25Z
date_published: 2021-02-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-08-12T09:57:53Z
day: '01'
ddc:
- '570'
department:
- _id: GaTk
doi: 10.1242/dev.176065
external_id:
  isi:
  - '000613906000007'
  pmid:
  - '33526425'
intvolume: '       148'
isi: 1
issue: '2'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.176065
month: '02'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
pmid: 1
project:
- _id: 254E9036-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
  call_identifier: FWF
  grant_number: P28844-B27
  name: Biophysics of information processing in gene regulation
publication: Development
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1477-9129
publication_status: published
publisher: Company of Biologists
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: The many bits of positional information
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 148
year: '2021'
...