Early Vert Development (4) Flashcards
In summary, what did we find with the animal/vegetal sandwich experiments?
- endoderm is able to induce mesoderm
In summary, what did we find with the rescue of UV ventralized embryos?
- dorsal endoderm (Nieuwkoop center) can induce dorsal mesoderm (Spemann’s organizer)
- Wnt signaling was driving force
Given all the information, what can we conclude about the UV effect?
- microtubule formation is blocked by UV
- this causes GBP (and disheveled and wnt11 mRNA) to not make it to the right location
- end result is a ventralized embryo
What is the Nieukoop center doing wrt organizer formation?
- GBP, disheveled –> TF siamois –> TF Goosecoid
What is Goosecoid?
- transcription factor that specifies the Sp organizer
What do we see with a GBP rescue experiment?
- injecting GBP into a UV treated ventralized embryo results in only half the average dorsal/anterior index
- this indicates that GBP is not suficient for a complete rescue of a ventralized embryo and something else is needed
How is beta-catenin normally in each axis?
- ventral: beta-catenin degraded
- dorsal: beta-catenin stabilized
On the dorsal side, what happens to the siamois gene?
- b-catenin proteins bind upstream to siamois gene
- this activates transcription of siamois protein
- siamois protein activates the goosecoid gene and goosecoid protein is transcribed
On the ventral side, what happens to the siamois gene?
- Tcf3 proteins bind upstream to the siamois gene
- this represses the siamois gene and no siamois protein is transcribed
What contributes to goosecoid expression?
- siamois protein (but does not produce strong enough goosecoid expression alone)
- Smad2/4 from TGF-B signal
What is the TGF-B pathway that contributes to Goosecoid protein transcription?
- Vg1 –> goosecoid
- Vg1 –>Xnr1,2,3 (xenopus nodal-related) –> goosecoid
- (VegT) –> derriere activin nodal –> Xnr1,2,3 –> goosecoid
What does goosecoid specify/activate?
- noggin, chordin and follistatin
- these specify/activate XBF-2 and Zic-r that define neural fate
What concentrations lead to ventral endoderm?
- high concentrations of VegT and Vg1 (all endoderm specified by this)
- low concentrations of B-catenin
- nodal related low
What concentrations lead to dorsal endoderm?
- overlap of VegT and Vg1 with b-catenin
- nodal related high
What is seen throughout the fully formed adult body?
- high degree of diversification along axis (ex. brain, or bones in limb)
What is the Xnr gradient?
- lower concentration on the ventral side and higher concentration on the dorsal side
- within the endoderm and affects the mesoderm
Why is having a gradient advantageous?
- allows for scale
- different relations of response to signal (different response to low, medium or high)
- different cell responses could lead to different fates