PUBLICATION
Zebrafish nodal-related 2 encodes an early mesendodermal inducer signaling from the extraembryonic yolk syncytial layer
- Authors
- Erter, C.E., Solnica-Krezel, L., and Wright, C.V.E.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-990119-19
- Date
- 1998
- Source
- Developmental Biology 204: 361-372 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Burns (Erter), Caroline, Solnica-Krezel, Lilianna, Wright, Christopher V.E.
- Keywords
- Danio rerio; zebrafish; nodal; mesoderm induction; YSL; dorsal forerunners
- MeSH Terms
-
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Animals
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/embryology*
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/physiology
- Embryonic Induction*
- Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins
- Mesoderm/physiology*
- Mice
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Nodal Signaling Ligands
- Proteins*
- Sequence Alignment
- Signal Transduction/physiology
- Transforming Growth Factor beta/physiology*
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- Zebrafish/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins*
- PubMed
- 9882476 Full text @ Dev. Biol.
Citation
Erter, C.E., Solnica-Krezel, L., and Wright, C.V.E. (1998) Zebrafish nodal-related 2 encodes an early mesendodermal inducer signaling from the extraembryonic yolk syncytial layer. Developmental Biology. 204:361-372.
Abstract
Nodal-related factors have been implicated in mesodermal and neural patterning, and left-right asymmetry, in mouse, frog, and chicken embryos. We describe the isolation and characterization of zebrafish nodal-related 2 (znr2). znr2 is expressed at low levels maternally, and zygotic transcripts localize to dorsal blastomeres at MBT. Slightly later, znr2 is also expressed dorsally in the extraembryonic yolk syncytial layer (YSL). During early gastrulation, znr2 expression expands to include deep and superficial cells in the entire marginal zone and YSL. During shield stages, expression is primarily localized to superficial noninvoluting cells of the organizer called dorsal forerunners. Znr2 misexpression in whole fish embryos expands or duplicates dorsoanterior and axial cell fates. Furthermore, Znr2 overexpression exclusively in the YSL, a region implicated in endogenous mesodermal induction, causes broadened or duplicated gsc expression in the overlying blastoderm. Functional comparison of Znr2 and another recently identified zebrafish nodal-related factor, Znr1/Cyclops, reveals distinct inductive properties of each ligand. Znr2 efficiently induces organizer-type dorsoanterior mesodermal and endodermal markers, but only weakly, if at all, neural markers. In contrast, while Znr1/Cyclops reproducibly induces mesodermal and neural markers, it is an inefficient inducer of organizer-type mesoderm. Our results suggest that znr2 encodes a robust mesendodermal inducer that signals nonautonomously during the earliest stages of embryonic patterning, and that part of this activity arises from within the YSL
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping