Wu J Y, Wen L, Zhang W J, Rao Y
Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Science. 1996 Jul 19;273(5273):355-8. doi: 10.1126/science.273.5273.355.
Signaling molecules are essential for vertebrate embryonic development. Here, two Xenopus homologs of the Drosophila gene fringe, lunatic Fringe (lFng) and radical Fringe (rFng), were identified and the protein product of lFng further characterized. The messenger RNA of lFng is supplied as a maternal message. Its product is a precursor protein consisting of pre-, pro-, and mature regions. The mature lunatic Fringe protein is secreted extracellularly, and it induced mesodermal tissue formation in animal cap assays. These results indicate that secreted lunatic Fringe can induce mesoderm and reveal that the Fringe proteins are a family of vertebrate signaling molecules.
信号分子对脊椎动物胚胎发育至关重要。在此,我们鉴定出了果蝇基因边缘的两个非洲爪蟾同源物,即新月形边缘蛋白(lFng)和激进边缘蛋白(rFng),并对lFng的蛋白质产物进行了进一步表征。lFng的信使核糖核酸作为母源信息提供。其产物是一种由前体、原区域和成熟区域组成的前体蛋白。成熟的新月形边缘蛋白分泌到细胞外,并且在动物帽实验中诱导中胚层组织形成。这些结果表明,分泌的新月形边缘蛋白能够诱导中胚层形成,并揭示边缘蛋白是脊椎动物信号分子家族。