Genes belonging to the “gap” and “gap-like” family constitute the best-studied gene regulatory networks (GRNs) in Drosophila embryogenesis. Gap genes are a core of two subnetworks controlling embryonic segmentation: (hunchback, hb; Krüppel, Kr; giant, gt; and knirps, kni) and (hb; Kr; pou-domain, pdm; and, probably, castor, cas). Of particular interest is that (hb, Kr, pdm, cas) also specifies the temporal identity of stem cells, neuroblasts, in Drosophila neurogenesis. This GRN controls the sequential differentiation of neuroblasts during the asymmetric cell division. In the last decades, modeling of the patterning of gene ensemble (hb, Kr, gt, kni) in segmentation was in the center of attention. We show that our previously published and extensively studied model at a certain level of external factors is able to reproduce temporal patterns of (hb, Kr, pdm, cas) in neurogenesis with minor evolutionary explicable modifications. This result testifies in favor of a hypothesis that the similarity of two gene ensembles active in segmentation and neurogenesis is a result of co-option of the network architecture in evolution from the common ancestral form. By means of the model dynamical analysis, it is shown that the establishment of the robust patterns in both systems could be explained in terms of the action of attractors in the gap gene dynamical system. We formulate the common principles underlying the robustness of both GRNs in segmentation and neurogenesis due to the similar functional organization of the gene ensembles as having the same evolutionary origin.

属于“gap”和“gap-like”家族的基因构成了果蝇胚胎发生中研究最深入的基因调控网络 (GRN) 。间隙的基因是两个子网络控制胚胎分割的芯：（驼背，HB ; Krüppel，氪;巨人，GT ;和knirps，KNI）和（HB ;氪; POU域，PDM ;和，可能的是，蓖麻油，CAS） . 特别令人感兴趣的是 ( hb , Kr , pdm ,cas ) 还指定了果蝇神经发生中干细胞、神经母细胞的时间特性。该 GRN 在不对称细胞分裂过程中控制成神经细胞的顺序分化。在过去的几十年中，分割中的基因集合（hb、Kr、gt、kni）模式的建模成为关注的焦点。我们表明，我们先前发表并广泛研究的模型在一定程度的外部因素下能够重现（hb，Kr，pdm，cas 的时间模式。) 在神经发生中，有微小的进化可解释的修改。这一结果证明了一个假设，即在分割和神经发生中活跃的两个基因集合的相似性是网络结构从共同祖先形式进化的共同选择的结果。通过模型动力学分析表明，两个系统中鲁棒模式的建立可以用gap基因动力学系统中吸引子的作用来解释。由于具有相同进化起源的基因集合的相似功能组织，我们制定了两个 GRN 在分割和神经发生方面的稳健性的共同原则。