title: The secreted product of Xenopus gene lunatic Fringe, a vertebrate signaling molecule.
abstract: Signaling molecules are essential for vertebrate embryonic development. Here, two Xenopus homologs of the Drosophila gene fringe, lunatic Fringe (lFng) and radical Fringe (rFng), were identified and the protein product of lFng further characterized. The messenger RNA of lFng is supplied as a maternal message. Its product is a precursor protein consisting of pre-, pro-, and mature regions. The mature lunatic Fringe protein is secreted extracellularly, and it induced mesodermal tissue formation in animal cap assays. These results indicate that secreted lunatic Fringe can induce mesoderm and reveal that the Fringe proteins are a family of vertebrate signaling molecules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rao
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned; D046508:Culture Techniques; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism; D047108:Embryonic Development; D004627:Embryonic Induction; D016695:Glycosyltransferases; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014981:Xenopus / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics; D029867:Xenopus Proteins
chemical_list: D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D029867:Xenopus Proteins; C105140:rfng protein, Xenopus; D016695:Glycosyltransferases; C100015:LFNG protein, Xenopus; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases; C090576:fng protein, Drosophila