Yoshioka H, Ohuchi H, Nohno T, Fujiwara A, Tanda N, Kawakami Y, Noji S
Department of Biological Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokushima, Japan.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1994 Sep 30;203(3):1581-8. doi: 10.1006/bbrc.1994.2367.
Members of the Wnt gene family code for cysteine-rich, secreted proteins, which are differentially expressed in the developing brain and possibly act as an intercellular signaling molecule. A Wnt gene, e.g., Wnt-1 is known to be essential for specification of the midbrain cell fate. Since other members of the Wnt genes are likely to be also involved in development of the brain, we searched chick Wnt members expressing in specific domains of the brain. We found several novel Wnt members expressing specifically in the central nervous system of chick embryos. One of the genes was intensely expressed in a segment of the diencephalon at stages 14 and 20 and in a dorsal region of the spinal cord at stage 20. Although the expression patterns differ from those of mouse or Xenopus Wnt-4, the gene is highly homologous to the mouse or frog Wnt-4. Thus, we designated the gene as Cwnt-4 (chick Wnt-4). Our results suggested that Cwnt-4 is involved in segmentation of the forebrain into the neuromere D2 and in differentiation of the dorsal region of the spinal cord.
Wnt基因家族的成员编码富含半胱氨酸的分泌蛋白，这些蛋白在发育中的大脑中差异表达，并可能作为一种细胞间信号分子发挥作用。已知一种Wnt基因，如Wnt-1，对中脑细胞命运的特化至关重要。由于Wnt基因的其他成员可能也参与大脑发育，我们搜索了在大脑特定区域表达的鸡Wnt成员。我们发现了几个在鸡胚中枢神经系统中特异性表达的新型Wnt成员。其中一个基因在第14和20阶段的间脑部分以及第20阶段的脊髓背侧区域强烈表达。尽管其表达模式与小鼠或非洲爪蟾的Wnt-4不同，但该基因与小鼠或青蛙的Wnt-4高度同源。因此，我们将该基因命名为Cwnt-4（鸡Wnt-4）。我们的结果表明，Cwnt-4参与前脑分割为神经节D2以及脊髓背侧区域的分化。
