title: miRNAs and morphogen gradients.
abstract: Morphogens induce biological diversity by operating in a dose-dependent manner. Here we review recent evidences indicating that microRNAs (miRNAs) are ideally suited to serve the morphogen cause. miRNAs regulate the establishment of morphogen gradients, including TGFβ, Wnt and other growth factors by acting on their secretion, distribution and clearance. miRNA are also critical in receiving cells, establishing context-dependency and threshold responses. Moreover, miRNAs contributes to gene networks that transform the graded activity of a morphogen into robust cell fate decisions. Finally, we discuss in the perspective section the implication of the new ceRNA hypothesis for morphogen biology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inui
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Montagner
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Piccolo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D035683:MicroRNAs