TY  - JOUR
TI  - Zygotic <I>VegT</I> is required for <I>Xenopus</I> paraxial mesoderm formation and is regulated by Nodal signaling and Eomesodermin 
AU  - Fukuda, Masakazu
AU  - Takahashi, Shuji
AU  - Haramoto, Yoshikazu
AU  - Onuma, Yasuko
AU  - Kim, Yeon-Jin
AU  - Yeo, Chang-Yeol
AU  - Ishiura, Shoichi
AU  - Asashima, Makoto
T2  - The International Journal of Developmental Biology
AB  - The T-box gene VegT plays a crucial role during mesendoderm specification of the amphibian embryo. While the function of maternal VegT (mVegT)  has been extensively investigated, little is known about the function and transcriptional regulation of zygotic VegT (zVegT). In the present study, we used comparative genomics and a knockdown experiment to demonstrate that zVegT  is the orthologous gene of zebrafish Spadetail/Tbx16 and chick Tbx6L/Tbx6, and has an essential role in paraxial mesodermal formation. zVegT knockdown embryos show several defects in the patterning of trunk mesoderm, such as abnormal segmentation of somites, a reduction in muscle, and the formation of an abnormal mass of cells at the tail tip. We also identified the cis-regulatory elements of zVegT that are necessary and sufficient for mesoderm-specific expression. These cis-regulatory elements are located in two separate upstream regions of zVegT, corresponding to the first intron of mVegT. The results of in vitro binding and functional assays indicate that Forkhead box H1 (FoxH1) and Eomesodermin (Eomes) are the trans-acting factors required for zVegT expression. Our results highlight the essential role of zVegT in organization of paraxial mesoderm, and reveal that zVegT is regulated by a coherent feedforward loop of Nodal signaling via Eomes.
PY  - 2010
DO  - 10.1387/ijdb.082837mf
VL  - 54
IS  - 1
SP  - 81
EP  - 92
J2  - Int. J. Dev. Biol.
LA  - en
SN  - 0214-6282
SN  - 1696-3547
UR  - https://ijdb.ehu.eus/article/082837mf
Y2  - 2024/11/24/06:06:17
ER  -