TY - JOUR TI - Patterning of the vertebrate ventral spinal cord. AU - Poh, Alisa AU - Karunaratne, Asanka AU - Kolle, Gabriel AU - Huang, Ning AU - Smith, Emma AU - Starkey, Joanna AU - Wen, Daying AU - Wilson, Ian AU - Yamada, Toshiya AU - Hargrave, Murray T2 - The International Journal of Developmental Biology AB - We review investigations that have lead to a model of how the ventral spinal cord of higher vertebrate embryos is patterned during development. Central to this model is the secreted morphogen protein, Sonic hedgehog. There is now considerable evidence that this molecule acts in a concentration-dependent manner to direct the development of the spinal cord. Recent studies have suggested that two classes of homeodomain proteins are induced by threshold concentrations of Sonic hedgehog. Reciprocal inhibition between the two classes acts to convert the continuous gradient of Sonic hedgehog into defined domains of transcription factor expression. However, a number of aspects of ventral spinal cord patterning remain to be elucidated. Some issues currently under investigation involve temporal aspects of Shh-signalling, the role of other signals in ventral patterning and the characterisation of ventral interneurons. In this review, we discuss the current state of knowledge of these issues and present some preliminary studies aimed at furthering understanding of these processes in spinal cord patterning. PY - 2002 VL - 46 IS - 4 SP - 597 EP - 608 J2 - Int. J. Dev. Biol. LA - en SN - 0214-6282 SN - 1696-3547 UR - https://ijdb.ehu.eus/article/12141448 Y2 - 2024/11/24/14:10:04 ER -