During spinal cord development, the combination of secreted signaling proteins and transcription factors provides information for each neural type differentiation. Studies using embryonic stem cells show that trimethylation of lysine 27 of histone H3 (H3K27me3) contributes to repression of many genes key for neural development. However, it remains unclear how H3K27me3-mediated mechanisms contro...

The mammalian organ of Corti of the inner ear is a highly sophisticated sensory end organ responsible for detecting sound. Noggin is a secreted glycoprotein, which antagonizes bone morphogenetic proteins 2 and 4 (Bmp2 and Bmp4). The lack of this antagonist causes increased rows of inner and outer hair cells in the organ of Corti. In mice, Bmp2 is expressed transiently in nascent cochlear hair c...

Mammalian limb development is driven by the integrative input from several signaling pathways; a failure to receive or a misinterpretation of these signals results in skeletal defects. The brachydactylies, a group of overlapping inherited human hand malformation syndromes, are mainly caused by mutations in BMP signaling pathway components. Two closely related forms, Brachydactyly type B2 (BDB2)...

BMP2, like its Drosophila homologue dpp, is an important signaling molecule for specification of cardiogenic mesoderm in vertebrates. Here, we analyzed the time-course of BMP2-requirement for early heart formation in whole chick embryos and in explants of antero-lateral plate mesoderm. Addition of Noggin to explants isolated at stage 4 and cultured for 24 h resulted in loss of NKX2.5, GATA4, eH...

Driving specific differentiation pathways in multipotent stem cells is a main goal of cell therapy. Here we exploited the differentiating potential of Xenopus animal cap embryonic stem (ACES) cells to investigate the factors necessary to drive multipotent stem cells toward retinal fates. ACES cells are multipotent, and can be diverged from their default ectodermal fate to give rise to cell type...

Signals released by the Spemann organizer of the amphibian gastrula can directly induce neural tissue from ectoderm and can dorsalize ventral mesoderm to form muscle. The secreted polypeptide noggin mimics these activities and is expressed at the appropriate time and place to participate in the organizer signal. Neural induction and mesoderm dorsalization are antagonized by bone morphogenetic p...

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signalling is necessary for both the development of the tail bud and for tail regeneration in Xenopus laevis tadpoles. Using a stable transgenic line in which expression of the soluble BMP inhibitor noggin is under the control of the temperature inducible hsp70 promoter, we have investigated the timing of the requirement for BMP signalling during tail regenerati...

BACKGROUND BMP4 is a member of the transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) superfamily and Noggin is a potent BMP inhibitor that exerts its function by binding to BMPs preventing interactions with its receptors. The aim of this work was to investigate the role of BMP4 and Noggin, on oocytes in vitro maturation (m experiments) and embryos in vitro development (c experiments) of bovine. METHO...