FoxA4 favours notochord formation by inhibiting contiguous mesodermal fates and restricts anterior neural development in Xenopus embryos.

ABSTRACT: In vertebrates, the embryonic dorsal midline is a crucial signalling centre that patterns the surrounding tissues during development. Members of the FoxA subfamily of transcription factors are expressed in the structures that compose this centre. Foxa2 is essential for dorsal midline development in mammals, since knock-out mouse embryos lack a definitive node, notochord and floor plate. The related gene foxA4 is only present in amphibians. Expression begins in the blastula -chordin and -noggin expressing centre (BCNE) and is later restricted to the dorsal midline derivatives of the Spemann's organiser. It was suggested that the early functions of mammalian foxa2 are carried out by foxA4 in frogs, but functional experiments were needed to test this hypothesis. Here, we show that some import

SUBMITTER: Murgan S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4208771 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature