title: Evidence for a frizzled-mediated wnt pathway required for zebrafish dorsal mesoderm formation.
abstract: We have used zebrafish as a model system for the study of vertebrate dorsoventral patterning. We isolated a maternally expressed and dorsal organizer localized member of the frizzled family of wnt receptors. Wild-type and dominant, loss-of-function molecules in misexpression studies demonstrate frizzled function is necessary and sufficient for dorsal mesoderm specification. frizzled activity is antagonized by the action of GSK-3, and we show GSK-3 is also required for zebrafish dorsal mesoderm formation. frizzled cooperatively interacts with the maternally encoded zebrafish wnt8 protein in dorsal mesodermal fate determination. This frizzled -mediated wnt pathway for dorsal mesoderm specification provides the first evidence for the requirement of a wnt-like signal in vertebrate axis determination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Institute of Human Genetics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nasevicius
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hyatt
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guttman
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sumanas
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Ekker
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D019521:Body Patterning; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D038362:Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016296:Mutagenesis; D011506:Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins
chemical_list: D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins; C115806:fzd8b protein, zebrafish; C094521:wnt8a protein, zebrafish; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases; D038362:Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3