tBid mediated activation of the mitochondrial death pathway leads to genetic ablation of the lens in Xenopus laevis.
Xenopus is a well proven model for a wide variety of developmental studies, including cell lineage. Cell lineage in Xenopus has largely been addressed by injection of tracer molecules or by micro-dissection elimination of blastomeres. Here we describe a genetic method for cell ablation based on the use of tBid, a direct activator of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. In mammalian cells, cross-talk between the main apoptotic pathways (the mitochondrial and the death domain protein pathways) involve the pro-death protein BID, the active form of which, tBID, results from protease truncation and translocation to mitochondria. In transgenic Xenopus, restricting tBID expression to the lens-forming cells enables the specific ablation of the lens without affecting the development of other eye structures. Thus, overexpression of tBid can be used in vivo as a tool to eliminate a defined cell population by apoptosis in a developing organism and to evaluate the degree of autonomy or the inductive effects of a specific tissue during embryonic development.
Du Pasquier
D
D
Laboratoire de Transgenèse et Génétique des Amphibiens, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France. pasquier@mnhn.fr
Chesneau
A
A
Ymlahi-Ouazzani
Q
Q
Boistel
R
R
Pollet
N
N
Ballagny
C
C
Sachs
L M
LM
Demeneix
B
B
Mazabraud
A
A
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D017209:Apoptosis; D051023:BH3 Interacting Domain Death Agonist Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D019070:Cell Lineage; D007908:Lens, Crystalline / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014982:Xenopus laevis / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D051023:BH3 Interacting Domain Death Agonist Protein