title: Cilia, KIF3 molecular motor and nodal flow.
abstract: The establishment of left-right asymmetry during development of vertebrate embryos depends on leftward flow in the nodal cavity. The flow is produced by the rotational movement of the posteriorly tilted nodal cilia. However, it remains poorly understood how the nodal cilia are tilted posteriorly, and how the directionality of the flow is translated into gene expression patterns in the embryo. Recent studies have identified signaling molecules involved in these processes. First, planar cell polarity signaling has been shown to be involved in the posterior positioning of the basal bodies of nodal cilia, which leads to the posterior tilting of their rotation axes. Second, identification of putative receptors and signaling molecules suggests a link between the signaling molecules delivered by the nodal flow, and downstream signaling in the cells surrounding the nodal cavity and the lateral plate mesoderm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. hirokawa@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Nobutaka
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hirokawa
authors.forename: Yosuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D016764:Cell Polarity; D002923:Cilia / Q000378:metabolism*; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D047108:Embryonic Development; D006801:Humans; D016547:Kinesins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D016547:Kinesins; D002118:Calcium