Montagner Marco, Martello Graziano, Piccolo Stefano
Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padua School of Medicine, viale Colombo 3, 35131, Padua, Italy.
Methods Mol Biol. 2016;1344:245-59. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-2966-5_15.
The embryo of the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis plays a central role in the field of cell and developmental biology. One of the strengths of Xenopus as model system lies in the high degree of conservation between amphibians and mammals in the molecular mechanisms controlling tissue patterning and differentiation. As such, many signaling cascades were first investigated in frog embryos and then confirmed in mouse and/or human cells. The TGF-β signaling cascade greatly benefited from this model system. Here we review the overall logic and experimental planning for studying Smad activity in vivo in the context of Xenopus embryonic development, and provide a guide for the interpretation of the results.
非洲爪蟾（非洲爪蟾）的胚胎在细胞与发育生物学领域发挥着核心作用。非洲爪蟾作为模型系统的优势之一在于，在控制组织模式形成和分化的分子机制方面，两栖动物和哺乳动物之间具有高度的保守性。因此，许多信号级联反应最初是在蛙胚胎中进行研究，然后在小鼠和/或人类细胞中得到证实。TGF-β信号级联反应从这个模型系统中受益匪浅。在这里，我们回顾了在非洲爪蟾胚胎发育背景下体内研究Smad活性的总体逻辑和实验规划，并为结果的解释提供指导。
