title: Chato, a KRAB zinc-finger protein, regulates convergent extension in the mouse embryo.
abstract: In Xenopus and zebrafish embryos, elongation of the anterior-posterior body axis depends on convergent extension, a process that involves polarized cell movements and is regulated by non-canonical Wnt signaling. The mechanisms that control axis elongation of the mouse embryo are much less well understood. Here, we characterize the ENU-induced mouse mutation chato, which causes arrest at midgestation and defects characteristic of convergent extension mutants, including a shortened body axis, mediolaterally extended somites and an open neural tube. The chato mutation disrupts Zfp568, a Krüppel-associated box (KRAB) domain zinc-finger protein. Morphometric analysis revealed that the definitive endoderm of mouse wild-type embryos undergoes cell rearrangements that lead to convergent extension during early somite stages, and that these cell rearrangements fail in chato embryos. Although non-canonical Wnt signaling is important for convergent extension in the mouse notochord and neural plate, the results indicate that chato regulates body axis elongation in all embryonic tissues through a process independent of non-canonical Wnt signaling.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology and Genetics Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. garciamj@cornell.edu
authors.forename: María J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: García-García
authors.forename: Maho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: Kathryn V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D051379:Mice; D009024:Morphogenesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D009154:Mutation; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D016335:Zinc Fingers / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D051153:Wnt Proteins; C533182:Zfp568 protein, mouse