QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online July 10, 2007

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Development Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

ERKsome disruption of early embryos

Preimplantation development is crucial for successful implantation and pregnancy in mammals. Compaction, an essential morphological change that occurs in eight-cell-stage embryos, has been extensively studied, but what regulates the preceding cell division stages? On p. 2751, Maekawa and colleagues report that extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK) mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase function is needed for these divisions in mouse embryos. They show that inhibition of ERK activation in late two-cell-stage embryos causes reversible arrest in G2 phase at the four-cell stage and that cell-cell adhesion is weaker in these embryos than in control embryos. Their microarray analysis shows that, although most of the changes in gene expression that occur during the four- to eight-cell stages of development occur in the four-cell-stage-arrested embryos, the expression of a subset of genes, including those encoding intercellular adhesion molecules and a set of cell cycle-related genes, is altered. Thus, the researchers conclude, ERK MAP kinase function is essential during the earliest stages of preimplantation development.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

Related articles in Development:

Requirement for ERK MAP kinase in mouse preimplantation development

Momoko Maekawa, Takuya Yamamoto, Michiaki Kohno, Masatoshi Takeichi, and Eisuke Nishida
Development 2007 134: 2751-2759. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Development Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?