Tes regulates neural crest migration and axial elongation in Xenopus.
Tes is a member of an emerging family of proteins sharing a set of protein motifs referred to as PET-LIM domains. PET-LIM proteins such as Prickle regulate cell behavior during gastrulation in Xenopus and zebrafish, and to ask whether Tes is also involved in controlling cell behavior, we isolated its Xenopus orthologue. Xtes is expressed as a maternal transcript that is maintained at low levels until neurula stages when expression is elevated in the head and axial structures. Depletion of Xtes leads to a foreshortened head and severe defects in axis elongation. The anterior defect is due in part to the inhibition of cranial neural crest migration while the defects in elongation may be due to perturbation of expression of XFGF8, Xdelta-1 and Xcad-3 and thereby to disruption of posterior somitogenesis. Finally, we note that simultaneous depletion of Xtes and Xenopus Prickle results in axial defects that are more severe than those resulting from depletion of Xtes alone, suggesting that the two proteins act together to control axial elongation.
Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology, and Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QR, UK.
Kevin S
KS
Dingwell
J C
JC
Smith
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000502:physiology; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D060588:LIM Domain Proteins; D008840:Microfilament Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D029867:Xenopus Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014982:Xenopus laevis
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D060588:LIM Domain Proteins; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; C510816:Tes protein, Xenopus; D029867:Xenopus Proteins; C510818:prickle1 protein, Xenopus