Disease relevance of tfap2a-a

• Unlike the situation in cultured human teratocarcinoma (NT2) cells, retinoic acid treatment did not induce XAP-2 mRNA in Xenopus embryos, even though the treatment had a pronounced morphogenetic effect on the embryos [1].

High impact information on tfap2a-a

• In accord with this proposal, it was found that the expression patterns of two early markers of cranial neural crest cells, Xtwi and XAP-2, were altered in embryos injected with v-erbA mRNA [2].
• The predicted amino acid sequence derived from the Xenopus cDNA shows very strong conservation with the amino acid sequence of human AP-2, suggesting that this protein is evolutionarily conserved, at least among vertebrates [1].
• Our results suggest that XAP-2 may play a distinctive role during Xenopus embryogenesis [1].
• This is further substantiated by the demonstration that an in vitro translation product of XAP-2 cDNA bound specifically to an AP-2 binding site from the human MT-IIA gene [1].
• Ectopic expression of XAP-2 can restore transcription of epidermal genes in neuralized ectoderm, both in ectodermal explants and in the intact embryo [3].

Biological context of tfap2a-a

• Thus, AP-2 is a critical regulator of ectodermal determination that is required for normal epidermal development and morphogenesis in the frog embryo [3].
• Likewise, loss of XAP-2 function, accomplished by injection of antisense oligonucleotides or by overexpression of antimorphic XAP-2 derivatives, leads to loss of epidermal and gain of neural gene expression [3].
• Upregulation of AP-2 in the skin of Xenopus laevis during thyroid hormone-induced metamorphosis [4].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of tfap2a-a

• Northern blot analysis of Xenopus embryo RNA revealed the existence of three major XAP-2 mRNA species that were only detectable after the midblastula transition (when embryonic transcription is activated), with peak accumulation of the transcripts occurring during gastrulation [1].

References