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Development 129, 4867-4876 (2002)
Copyright © 2002 The Company of Biologists Limited

Direct and indirect regulation of derrière, a Xenopus mesoderm-inducing factor, by VegT

R. J. White1, B. I. Sun2,*, H. L. Sive2 and J. C. Smith1,{dagger}

1 Division of Developmental Biology, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK and Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Institute and Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QR, UK
2 Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nine Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142-1479, USA
* Present address: Merck & Co. Inc., PO Box 4, West Point, PA 19486, USA

{dagger}Author for correspondence (e-mail: jim{at}welc.cam.ac.uk)

Accepted 2 July 2002

One candidate for an endogenous mesoderm-inducing factor in Xenopus is derrière, a member of the TGFß family closely related to Vg1. In this paper we first show that derrière is able to exert long-range effects in the early Xenopus embryo, reinforcing the view that it functions as a secreted factor required for proper formation of posterior structures. Analysis of the derrière promoter shows that expression of the gene is controlled through a complex inductive network involving VegT and TGFß-related molecules and also, perhaps, FGF family members. The work confirms that derrière plays an important role in mesoderm formation and it illustrates the complex regulation to which inducing factors are subject.

Key words: Xenopus, Mesoderm induction, derrière, TGFß family, T-box family, VegT, Smad, Fast






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2002