BMP signaling and spadetail regulate exit of muscle precursors from the zebrafish tailbud.

ABSTRACT: The tailbud is a population of stem cells in the posterior embryonic tail. During zebrafish development, these stem cells give rise to the main structures of the embryo's posterior body, including the tail somites. Progenitor cells reside in the tailbud for variable amounts of time before they exit and begin to differentiate. There must be a careful balance between cells that leave the tailbud and cells that are held back in order to give rise to later somites. However, this meticulous process is not well understood. A gene that has shed some light on this area is the t-box transcription factor spadetail (spt). When spt is mutated, embryos develop an enlarged tailbud and are only able to form roughly half of their somites. This phenotype is due to the fact that some of the somitic precurso

SUBMITTER: O'Neill K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3582720 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature