Constam Daniel B
Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2009 Aug;19(4):302-7. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2009.06.006. Epub 2009 Jul 22.
A fundamental challenge in biology is to explain how progenitor cells in developing tissues acquire distinct fates according to their position. In vertebrates, the positional information that specifies the germ layers and the primary body axes is mediated by Nodal. Nodal meets the criteria of a morphogen since it can diffuse through tissues and signal far away from its source to directly specify multiple cell fates in a dosage-dependent manner. To consider the relationship between trafficking and graded Nodal signaling, this review summarizes recent findings how the spreading of Nodal activity is regulated by factors that promote long range signaling during left-right axis formation, and by structural features that affect Nodal protein stability and endosomal sorting.
生物学中的一个基本挑战是解释发育组织中的祖细胞如何根据其位置获得不同的命运。在脊椎动物中，指定胚层和主要体轴的位置信息由Nodal介导。Nodal符合形态发生素的标准，因为它可以在组织中扩散，并从其来源远处发出信号，以剂量依赖的方式直接指定多种细胞命运。为了探讨运输与Nodal信号梯度之间的关系，本综述总结了最近的研究结果，即Nodal活性的扩散是如何受到促进左右轴形成过程中长距离信号传导的因素以及影响Nodal蛋白稳定性和内体分选的结构特征的调控。
