Xbra3 Induces Mesoderm and Neural Tissue in Xenopus laevis

Xbra3 induces mesoderm and neural tissue in Xenopus laevis.

Homologues of the murine Brachyury gene have been shown to be involved in mesoderm formation in several vertebrate species. In frogs, the Xenopus Brachyury homologue, Xbra, is required for normal formation of posterior mesoderm. We report the characterisation of a second Brachyury homologue from Xenopus, Xbra3, which has levels of identity with mouse Brachyury similar to those of Xbra. Xbra3 en...

Xbra3 elicits the production of neural tissue by a non-BMP-dependent mechanism in Xenopus sp.

Ectoderm cells in animal caps from Xenopus embryos develop to form either epidermis or neural tissue depending upon their receipt of intercellular signals. To date, several secreted neural inducers have been identified which act through the local inhibition of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling, preventing differentiation to epidermis and resulting in adoption of neural fate. In this wo...

Neural Induction without Mesoderm in Xenopus

MIER1 (mesoderm induction early response 1 homolog (Xenopus laevis))

A. Schematic illustrating the exon-intron organization of the human MIER1 gene Exons are shown as red bars/vertical lines and introns as horizontal lines; exon numbers are indicated below each schematic. The light red bar indicates the facultative intron 16 and the position of the alpha and beta carboxy-terminal coding regions are indicated. Note that the beta coding region is located within th...

The organization of mesodermal pattern in Xenopus laevis: experiments using a Xenopus mesoderm-inducing factor.

In this paper, we study the mechanism by which a Xenopus cell line-derived mesoderm-inducing factor (MIF) might establish the spatial pattern of cellular differentiation in the mesoderm. The effects of the factor on competent animal pole tissue are consistent with it being identical to the natural mesoderm-inducing factor. The signal can only act on those membrane domains of the animal pole tha...