title: Inhibition of morphogenetic movement during Xenopus gastrulation by injected sulfatase: implications for anteroposterior and dorsoventral axis formation.
abstract: In order to explore the role of morphogenetic movement in the establishment of anteroposterior and dorsoventral axes, we sought to identify novel in vivo inhibitors of gastrulation movements in Xenopus laevis. Injection of hydrolytic sulfatase into the blastocoels of gastrula stage embryos resulted in severe anteroposterior truncation, without a corresponding truncation of the dorsoventral axis. Confocal microscopy of whole embryos revealed that gastrulation movements are severely disrupted by sulfatase; in addition, sulfatase dramatically inhibited chordomesodermal cell elongation and convergent extension movements in planar dorsal marginal zone explants. The phenotype of anteroposterior reduction elicited by sulfatase is distinctly different from commonly generated dorsoanterior phenotypes (e.g., ultraviolet irradiation of the vegetal cortex prior to cortical rotation or suramin injection), and the two varieties of phenotype appear to result from inhibition of distinct, separable components of the axis-generating machinery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut 06459, USA. Wallingford@mail.utexas.edu
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Wallingford
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Sater
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Uzman
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Danilchik
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000528:radiation effects; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000528:radiation effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005775:Gastrula; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009024:Morphogenesis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects; D010641:Phenotype; D013429:Sulfatases / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays; D014982:Xenopus laevis / Q000196:embryology*
chemical_list: D013429:Sulfatases