The establishment of Spemann's organizer and patterning of the vertebrate embryo.
Molecular studies have begun to unravel the sequential cell-cell signalling events that establish the dorsal-ventral, or 'back-to-belly', axis of vertebrate animals. In Xenopus and zebrafish, these events start with the movement of membrane vesicles associated with dorsal determinants. This mediates the induction of mesoderm by generating gradients of growth factors. Dorsal mesoderm then becomes a signalling centre, the Spemann's organizer, which secretes several antagonists of growth-factor signalling. Recent studies have led to new models for the regulation of cell-cell signalling during development, which may also apply to the homeostasis of adult tissues.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1662, USA. derobert@hhmi.ucla.edu
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D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000196:embryology*
D006023:Glycoproteins; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; C054234:chordin