Abstract
We have used zebrafish as a model system for the study of vertebrate dorsoventral patterning. We isolated a maternally expressed and dorsal organizer localized member of the frizzled family of wnt receptors. Wild-type and dominant, loss-of-function molecules in misexpression studies demonstrate frizzled function is necessary and sufficient for dorsal mesoderm specification. frizzled activity is antagonized by the action of GSK-3, and we show GSK-3 is also required for zebrafish dorsal mesoderm formation. frizzled cooperatively interacts with the maternally encoded zebrafish wnt8 protein in dorsal mesodermal fate determination. This frizzled -mediated wnt pathway for dorsal mesoderm specification provides the first evidence for the requirement of a wnt-like signal in vertebrate axis determination.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4283-4292 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Development |
| Volume | 125 |
| Issue number | 21 |
| State | Published - 1998 |
Keywords
- Dorsal organizer
- Frizzled
- Mesoderm Dorsoventral patterning
- Zebrafish
- wnt signalling
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Molecular Biology
- Developmental Biology