Division of Molecular Embryology, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Development. 2010 Mar;137(6):845-57. doi: 10.1242/dev.039651.
The regulation of body axis specification in the common ancestor of bilaterians remains controversial. BMP signaling appears to be an ancient program for patterning the secondary, or dorsoventral, body axis, but any such program for the primary, or anteroposterior, body axis is debated. Recent work in invertebrates indicates that posterior Wnt/beta-catenin signaling is such a mechanism and that it evolutionarily predates the cnidarian-bilaterian split. Here, I argue that a Cartesian coordinate system of positional information set up by gradients of perpendicular Wnt and BMP signaling is conserved in bilaterians, orchestrates body axis patterning and contributes to both the relative invariance and diversity of body forms.
两侧对称动物共同祖先的体轴特化调控仍然存在争议。BMP 信号似乎是用于模式化次要的（即背腹）体轴的古老程序，但用于主要的（即前后）体轴的任何此类程序都存在争议。最近的无脊椎动物研究表明，后部 Wnt/β-连环蛋白信号是这样的一种机制，而且它在进化上早于刺胞动物-两侧对称动物的分化。在这里，我认为由垂直 Wnt 和 BMP 信号梯度建立的笛卡尔坐标系在两侧对称动物中是保守的，它协调体轴模式化，并有助于体形式的相对不变性和多样性。
