Jacob John, Briscoe James
Division of Developmental Neurobiology, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK.
EMBO Rep. 2003 Aug;4(8):761-5. doi: 10.1038/sj.embor.embor896.
The secreted protein sonic hedgehog (Shh) is crucial for the specification of neuronal subtype identity in the vertebrate neural tube. Zinc-finger proteins of the Gli family are known to be transcriptional mediators of Shh signalling, and to coordinately pattern the dorsal-ventral axis of the spinal cord. Recent studies indicate that additional signals may provide positional information in parallel to Shh to specify neuronal fate in this tissue. We review the role of Gli proteins in spinal-cord development and propose that various upstream patterning signals may be integrated by the Gli proteins to direct a coherent programme of neurogenesis.
分泌蛋白音猬因子(Shh)对于脊椎动物神经管中神经元亚型身份的特化至关重要。已知Gli家族的锌指蛋白是Shh信号的转录调节因子,并协同调控脊髓的背腹轴模式。最近的研究表明,其他信号可能与Shh并行提供位置信息,以特化该组织中的神经元命运。我们综述了Gli蛋白在脊髓发育中的作用,并提出Gli蛋白可能整合各种上游模式信号,以指导连贯的神经发生程序。