Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)

Editor

Personal info

View

About

Terms

Javascript disabled

Please enable Javascript support in your browser to use this application.

Instructions on how to enable JavaScript on different browsers can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=23852.

[edit this page]

Sidi, S. et al.

Maternal induction of ventral fate by zebrafish radar.

In vertebrate embryos, maternal determinants are thought to preestablish the dorsoventral axis by locally activating zygotic ventral- and dorsal-specifying genes, e.g., genes encoding bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and BMP inhibitors, respectively. Whereas the canonical Wntbeta-catenin pathway fulfills this role dorsally, the existence of a reciprocal maternal ventralizing signal remains hypothetical. Maternal noncanonical WntCa(2+) signaling may promote ventral fates by suppressing Wntbeta-catenin dorsalizing signals; however, whether any maternal determinant is directly required for the activation of zygotic ventral-specifying genes is unknown. Here, we show that such a function is achieved, in part, in the zebrafish embryo by the maternally encoded transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) signaling molecule, Radar. Loss-of-function experiments, together with epistasis analyses, identify maternal Radar as an upstream activator of bmps expression. Maternal induction of bmps by Radar is essential for zebrafish development as its removal results in larval-lethal dorsalized phenotypes. Double-morphant analyses further suggest that Radar functions through the TGF-beta receptor Alk8 to initiate the expression of bmp genes. Our results support the existence of a previously uncharacterized maternal ventralizing pathway. They might further indicate that maternal TGF-betaRdr and WntCa(2+) pathways complementarily specify ventral cell fates, with the former triggering bmps expression and the latter indirectly repressing genes encoding BMP antagonists.[1]

References

Maternal induction of ventral fate by zebrafish radar. Sidi, S., Goutel, C., Peyriéras, N., Rosa, F.M. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (2003) [Pubmed]

Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenes Open Access Licence Privacy Policy Terms of Use apsburg

The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.