del Barco Barrantes Ivan, Davidson Gary, Gröne Hermann-Josef, Westphal Heiner, Niehrs Christof
Division of Molecular Embryology, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Genes Dev. 2003 Sep 15;17(18):2239-44. doi: 10.1101/gad.269103. Epub 2003 Sep 2.
Growth factor antagonists play important roles in mediating the inductive effects of the Spemann organizer in amphibian embryos and its equivalents in other vertebrates. Dual inhibition of Wnt and BMP signals has been proposed to confer head organizer activity. We tested the requirement of this coinhibition in Xenopus and mice. In Xenopus, simultaneous reduction of the BMP antagonists chordin and noggin, and the Wnt antagonist dickkopf1 (dkk1) leads to anterior truncations. In mice, compound mutants for dkk1 and noggin display severe head defects, with deletion of all head structures anterior to the mid-hindbrain boundary. These defects arise as a result of a failure in anterior specification at the gastrula stage. The results provide genetic evidence for the dual inhibition model and indicate that dkk1 and noggin functionally cooperate in the head organizer.
生长因子拮抗剂在介导两栖动物胚胎中施佩曼组织者及其在其他脊椎动物中的等效物的诱导作用方面发挥着重要作用。有人提出,对Wnt和BMP信号的双重抑制赋予头部组织者活性。我们在非洲爪蟾和小鼠中测试了这种共同抑制的必要性。在非洲爪蟾中,BMP拮抗剂脊索蛋白和头蛋白,以及Wnt拮抗剂Dickkopf1(dkk1)的同时减少会导致前部截断。在小鼠中,dkk1和头蛋白的复合突变体表现出严重的头部缺陷,中后脑边界前方的所有头部结构均缺失。这些缺陷是由于原肠胚阶段前部特化失败所致。这些结果为双重抑制模型提供了遗传学证据,并表明dkk1和头蛋白在头部组织者中发挥功能协同作用。