Fujimori T, Miyatani S, Takeichi M
Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Japan.
Development. 1990 Sep;110(1):97-104. doi: 10.1242/dev.110.1.97.
Xenopus embryos express N-cadherin in a pattern similar to that observed in other species, and cells expressing Xenopus N-cadherin can bind to cells expressing chicken N-cadherin in vitro. To investigate the developmental role of this molecule, we injected mRNA encoding chicken N-cadherin into one blastomere of 2-cell-stage Xenopus embryos and examined the effect of its expression on their development. The ectopic expression of N-cadherin occurred in various regions of the injected embryos and induced abnormal histogenesis, such as thickening, clumping or fusion of cell layers. These results suggest that the precise quantitative and qualitative regulation of the expression of cadherins is essential to embryonic morphogenesis.
非洲爪蟾胚胎表达N-钙黏蛋白的模式与在其他物种中观察到的相似，并且表达非洲爪蟾N-钙黏蛋白的细胞在体外能够与表达鸡N-钙黏蛋白的细胞结合。为了研究该分子在发育中的作用，我们将编码鸡N-钙黏蛋白的mRNA注射到二细胞期非洲爪蟾胚胎的一个卵裂球中，并检测其表达对胚胎发育的影响。N-钙黏蛋白的异位表达出现在注射胚胎的各个区域，并诱导了异常的组织发生，如细胞层增厚、聚集或融合。这些结果表明，钙黏蛋白表达的精确数量和质量调控对于胚胎形态发生至关重要。
