Nodal is a secreted protein that affects the behavior of other cells through specific binding to the cell surface receptors. Overexpression or inhibition of Nodal resulted in impaired morphogenesis of the dorsal neural tube. These results indicate that Nodal is required for morphogenesis of the neural tube. | (n) Normal embryo. (o) Inhibition of the Nodal signaling causes defects in neural tube formation. |
Inhibition of the cdx function, by using a dominant-negative form of cdx, resulted in abnormal morphogenesis of the neural tube. In the figure on the right side, the top panel shows a normal tailbud embryo, viewed from the dorsal side. Neural tube was stained in purple. The bottom panel shows the embryo where the function of cdx was disturbed. Neural tube cells were not converged to the dorsal midline. This result suggest that cdx is required for mediating the Nodal signling during neural tube morphogenesis. |
* | Mita, K., Koyanagi, R., Azumi, K., Sabau, S.V. & Fujiwara, S. (2010) Identification of genes downstream of Nodal in the Ciona intestinalis embryo. Zoological Science 27, 69-75. |
* | Mita, K. & Fujiwara, S. (2007) Nodal regulates neural tube formation in the Ciona intestinalis embryo. Dev. Genes Evol. 217: 593-601. |