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Maternal nodal and zebrafish embryogenesis

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A Brief Communications Arising to this article was published on 08 November 2007

Abstract

Arising from: A. V. Gore et al. Nature 438, 1030–1035 (2005)10.1038/nature04184; Gore et al. reply

In fish and amphibians, the dorsal axis is specified by the asymmetric localization of maternally provided components of the Wnt signalling pathway1,2. Gore et al.3 suggest that the Nodal signal Squint (Sqt) is required as a maternally provided dorsal determinant in zebrafish. Here we test their proposal and show that the maternal activities of sqt and the related Nodal gene cyclops (cyc) are not required for dorsoventral patterning.

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Figure 1: Splicing and disruption of sqt RNA.
Figure 2: The maternal Nodal genes cyclops and squint are not required for dorsal axis specification.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Developmental Genetics Program, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, 10016, New York, USA

    James T. Bennett, Wen-Yee Choi, Brian Ciruna & Alexander F. Schier

  2. Department of Cell Biology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, 10016, New York, USA

    James T. Bennett, Wen-Yee Choi, Brian Ciruna & Alexander F. Schier

  3. Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Heather L. Stickney & William S. Talbot

  4. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Center for Brain Science, Broad Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Wen-Yee Choi & Alexander F. Schier

  5. Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5G 1L7, Ontario, Canada

    Brian Ciruna

  6. The Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 1L7, Ontario, Canada

    Brian Ciruna

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  1. James T. Bennett
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  2. Heather L. Stickney
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  3. Wen-Yee Choi
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  4. Brian Ciruna
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  5. William S. Talbot
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  6. Alexander F. Schier
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Bennett, J., Stickney, H., Choi, WY. et al. Maternal nodal and zebrafish embryogenesis. Nature 450, E1–E2 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06314

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06314

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