Signal-induced repression: the exception or the rule in developmental signaling?
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.
Affolter
Markus
M
Biozentrum der Universität Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland. markus.affolter@unibas.ch
Pyrowolakis
George
G
Weiss
Alexander
A
Basler
Konrad
K
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
D008024:Ligands; D014157:Transcription Factors