PUBLICATION
The vertebrate segmentation clock
- Authors
- Giudicelli, F., and Lewis, J.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-040721-2
- Date
- 2004
- Source
- Current opinion in genetics & development 14(4): 407-414 (Review)
- Registered Authors
- Lewis, Julian
- Keywords
- bHLH, basic helix-loop-helix; E(spl), Enhancer of split; her, hairy/E(spl)-related gene; Hes, hairy/E(spl) gene homologue, Lfng, Lunatic fringe, PSM, presomitic mesoderm
- MeSH Terms
-
- Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/metabolism
- Biological Clocks/physiology*
- Cytoskeletal Proteins/metabolism
- Body Patterning/physiology*
- Animals
- Transcription Factors/metabolism
- Wnt Proteins
- Models, Biological*
- Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors
- Axin Protein
- Vertebrates/embryology*
- Time Factors
- Receptors, Notch
- Embryonic Development/physiology*
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
- Membrane Proteins/metabolism
- PubMed
- 15261657 Full text @ Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev.
Citation
Giudicelli, F., and Lewis, J. (2004) The vertebrate segmentation clock. Current opinion in genetics & development. 14(4):407-414.
Abstract
In vertebrate embryos, somite segmentation is controlled by a molecular clock, in the form of a transcriptional oscillator that operates in the presomitic mesoderm. Most of the genes implicated in the oscillator belong to the Notch pathway; a recently discovered exception is the Wnt pathway gene Axin2. Experiments have revealed several negative feedback loops that might generate oscillations, leading to at least four different theories. The simplest of these is based on direct autoinhibition of certain members of the hairy/E(spl) family of Notch target genes - Hes7 in the mouse, and her1 and her7 in the zebrafish. A mathematical account of this mechanism explains some surprising observations and suggests that the period of oscillation is chiefly determined by the transcriptional and translational delays - the times required to make a molecule of the mRNA and a molecule of the protein.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping