title: Dorsoventral patterning of the Xenopus eye: a collaboration of Retinoid, Hedgehog and FGF receptor signaling.
abstract: In the developing spinal cord and telencephalon, ventral patterning involves the interplay of Hedgehog (Hh), Retinoic Acid (RA) and Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) signaling. In the eye, ventral specification involves Hh signaling, but the roles of RA and FGF signaling are less clear. By overexpression assays in Xenopus embryos, we found that both RA and FGF receptor (FGFR) signaling ventralize the eye, by expanding optic stalk and ventral retina, and repressing dorsal retina character. Co-overexpression experiments show that RA and FGFR can collaborate with Hh signaling and reinforce its ventralizing activity. In loss-of-function experiments, a strong eye dorsalization was observed after triple inhibition of Hh, RA and FGFR signaling, while weaker effects were obtained by inhibiting only one or two of these pathways. These results suggest that the ventral regionalization of the eye is specified by interactions of Hh, RA and FGFR signaling. We argue that similar mechanisms might control ventral neural patterning throughout the central nervous system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DY, UK.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lupo
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Roshantha A S
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Chandraratna
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barsacchi
authors.forename: Rong-Qiao
authors.initials: RQ
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000502:physiology; D005123:Eye / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D053823:Hedgehog Proteins; D017468:Receptors, Fibroblast Growth Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000378:metabolism*; D014212:Tretinoin / Q000378:metabolism*; D014981:Xenopus
chemical_list: D053823:Hedgehog Proteins; D017468:Receptors, Fibroblast Growth Factor; D015534:Trans-Activators; D014212:Tretinoin