Kondow Akiko, Hitachi Keisuke, Ikegame Tempei, Asashima Makoto
Department of Life Science Biology, Graduate School of Arts and Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan.
Int J Dev Biol. 2006;50(5):473-9. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.052138ak.
Cells in the prospective somite of Xenopus laevis embryos rotate in an orchestrated manner to form a segregated somite. The prospective somite boundaries are prepatterned by gene expressions in the unsegmented presomitic mesoderm (PSM). However, the roles of polarized gene expression in this boundary formation are not well elucidated. Here we identified a novel gene, bowline, which localizes to the anterior halves of S-II, III in the PSM of X. laevis. Bowline associated with corepressor XGrg-4, a Xenopus homolog of Groucho/TLE protein. A WRPW tetrapeptide motif in Bowline was prerequisite for coprecipitation with XGrg-4 and for downregulation of X-Delta-2 by bowline RNA injection. This study indicates that Bowline is a novel protein interacting with Groucho/TLE and may play a role in somitogenesis in X. laevis.
非洲爪蟾胚胎预期体节中的细胞以协调的方式旋转，形成一个分离的体节。预期体节边界由未分段的前体中胚层（PSM）中的基因表达预先设定。然而，极化基因表达在这种边界形成中的作用尚未得到充分阐明。在这里，我们鉴定了一个新基因bowline，它定位于非洲爪蟾PSM中S-II、III的前半部分。Bowline与共抑制因子XGrg-4相关，XGrg-4是Groucho/TLE蛋白的非洲爪蟾同源物。Bowline中的WRPW四肽基序是与XGrg-4共沉淀以及通过bowline RNA注射下调X-Delta-2的先决条件。这项研究表明，Bowline是一种与Groucho/TLE相互作用的新蛋白，可能在非洲爪蟾的体节发生中发挥作用。
