Dkk1 and noggin cooperate in mammalian head induction
- Ivan del Barco Barrantes1,
- Gary Davidson1,
- Hermann-Josef Gröne2,
- Heiner Westphal3, and
- Christof Niehrs1,4
- 1 Divisions of Molecular Embryology, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
- 2 Department of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
- 3 Laboratory of Mammalian Genes and Development, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA
Abstract
Growth factor antagonists play important roles in mediating the inductive effects of the Spemann organizer in amphibian embryos and its equivalents in other vertebrates. Dual inhibition of Wnt and BMP signals has been proposed to confer head organizer activity. We tested the requirement of this coinhibition in Xenopus and mice. In Xenopus, simultaneous reduction of the BMP antagonists chordin and noggin, and the Wnt antagonist dickkopf1 (dkk1) leads to anterior truncations. In mice, compound mutants for dkk1 and noggin display severe head defects, with deletion of all head structures anterior to the mid-hindbrain boundary. These defects arise as a result of a failure in anterior specification at the gastrula stage. The results provide genetic evidence for the dual inhibition model and indicate that dkk1 and noggin functionally cooperate in the head organizer.
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Footnotes
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Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.269103.
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↵4 Corresponding author. E-MAIL Niehrs{at}DKFZ-Heidelberg.de; FAX 49-6221-42-4692.
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- Accepted July 10, 2003.
- Received April 17, 2003.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
