title: Nodal signalling in vertebrate development.
abstract: Communication between cells during early embryogenesis establishes the basic organization of the vertebrate body plan. Recent work suggests that a signalling pathway centering on Nodal, a transforming growth factor beta-related signal, is responsible for many of the events that configure the vertebrate embryo. The activity of Nodal signals is regulated extracellularly by EGF-CFC cofactors and antagonists of the Lefty and Cerberus families of proteins, allowing precise control of mesoderm and endoderm formation, the positioning of the anterior-posterior axis, neural patterning and left-right axis specification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, New York University School of Medicine, New York 10016, USA. schier@saturn.med.nyu.edu
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Schier
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000502:physiology; D004627:Embryonic Induction; D005544:Forecasting; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000502:physiology; D055457:Nodal Protein; D015398:Signal Transduction; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D055457:Nodal Protein; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta