Identification of a chick homologue of Fringe and C-Fringe 1: involvement in the neurogenesis and the somitogenesis.

In Drosophila, Serrate plays an important role to the wing margin formation. A putative secretory protein, Fringe, is indispensable for the wing margin formation inducing Serrate and other genes. Recently, Xenopus homologues of Fringe were identified and one of them, lunatic Fringe (X-lFng), was demonstrated to be involved in mesoderm induction. We have identified two chick Fringe homologous genes by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and cDNA library screening. One of them, C-Fringe 1, showed sequence similarity to X-lFng. In situ hybridization study of C-Fringe 1 has demonstrated its expression in the developing nervous system and in the presomitic mesoderm. The hindbrain and spinal cord showed the distinct stripe pattern expression which was complementary to that of C-Serrate, indicating the correlation between them in vertebrate.