Control of organ shape by a secreted metalloprotease in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
Article Abstract:
Molecular controls ruling organ shape are not well understood. The gonad of Caenorhabditis elegans takes on a U-shape via directed migration of a leader cell situated at the tip of the growing gonadal arm. The gon-1 gene is required for gonadal morphogenesis in gon-1 mutants. Gon-1 is found to encode a secreted protein with a metalloprotease domain and multiple thrombospondin type-1-like repeats. This is typical of a group of genes including bovine procollagen I N-protease. It is speculated that GON-1 remodels basement membranes in the control of morphogenesis.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1999
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A unity of opposites
Article Abstract:
Cells secrete morphogens during development that affect the fates of their neighbours. Ashe and Levine have found that the Short gastrulation (Sog) morphogen has different effects at short versus long range. The sog gene was expressed in a stripe along the anterior-posterior axis, uncoupling the action of Sog from other dorsal-ventral patterning elements. Sog suppressed expression of the Decapentaplegic (DPP) marker close to the stripe of Sog expression, but widened expression at some distance from the Sog source.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1999
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Maintenance of somite borders in mice requires the Delta homologue Dll1
Article Abstract:
The importance of Delta homologue Dll1 gene in maintenance of somite borders in mice was investigated through histological analyses of mutant murine embryos. Results revealed that the loss of detectable anterior-posterior polarities in somites of Dll1 gene results to the loss of segment border of somites. Furthermore, Dll1 also determines the compartmentalization of somites.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1997
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