Sefton M, Nieto M A
Instituto Cajal, CSIC, Doctor Arce 37, E-28002 Madrid, Spain.
Cell Tissue Res. 1997 Nov;290(2):243-50. doi: 10.1007/s004410050928.
The Eph family of tyrosine kinase receptors and their ligands have aroused much attention over the last couple of years, because of the demonstration of their pivotal role in axon guidance and pathfinding in the developing vertebrate central nervous system. However, the first indications that these receptors may play important roles during development came from studies of segmentation in the early embryo. In this review, we discuss the two roles that have been attributed to Eph receptors and their ligands (regionalisation and axon guidance) with reference to the two systems in which they were originally described, viz., the hindbrain and the retina, respectively. Furthermore, we discuss evidence that these molecules fulfill both these functions in each of the systems analysed, the role played by members of these two families at any one time being dependent on the developmental stage at which they are expressed.
在过去几年里，酪氨酸激酶受体的Eph家族及其配体引起了广泛关注，因为它们在发育中的脊椎动物中枢神经系统的轴突导向和路径寻找中起着关键作用。然而，这些受体可能在发育过程中发挥重要作用的最初迹象来自早期胚胎分割的研究。在这篇综述中，我们分别参照最初描述它们的两个系统，即后脑和视网膜，讨论了归因于Eph受体及其配体的两种作用（区域化和轴突导向）。此外，我们讨论了证据表明这些分子在每个分析的系统中都履行这两种功能，这两个家族成员在任何时候所起的作用取决于它们表达时的发育阶段。
