title: Signal-induced repression: the exception or the rule in developmental signaling?
abstract: Cell-cell communication plays a key role in organ formation and patterning in multicellular animals and is carried out by a few evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways. The modes of action of these pathways share a number of general properties, or habits, that allow them to strongly activate target genes in a ligand-dependent manner in the proper cellular contexts. Recent studies have revealed that some developmental signaling pathways can also strongly repress genes in a ligand-dependent manner. These new findings raise the interesting possibility that this repressive mode of action is shared by many or most developmental signaling pathways.
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum der Universität Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland. markus.affolter@unibas.ch
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Affolter
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pyrowolakis
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Basler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D020868:Gene Silencing; D008024:Ligands; D008954:Models, Biological; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D015533:Transcriptional Activation
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D014157:Transcription Factors