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A conserved role for retinoid signaling in vertebrate pancreas development

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Abstract

Retinoic acid (RA) signaling plays critical roles in the regionalization of the central nervous system and mesoderm of all vertebrates that have been examined. However, to date, a role for RA in pancreas and liver development has only been demonstrated for the teleost zebrafish. Here, we demonstrate that RA signaling is required for development of the pancreas but not the liver in the amphibian Xenopus laevis and the avian quail. We disrupted RA signaling in Xenopus tadpoles, using both a pharmacological and a dominant-negative strategy. RA-deficient quail embryos were obtained from hens with a dietary deficiency in vitamin A. In both species we found that pancreas development was dependent on RA signaling. Furthermore, treatment of Xenopus tadpoles with exogenous RA led to an expansion of the pancreatic field. By contrast, liver development was not perturbed by manipulation of RA signaling. Taken together with our previous finding that RA signaling is necessary and sufficient for zebrafish pancreas development, these data support the hypothesis that a critical role for RA signaling in pancreas development is a conserved feature of the vertebrates.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Aaron Zorn, Rob Baker, and Maya Kumar for supplying probes. We also thank Aaron Zorn for comments on the manuscript. We are grateful to Hazel Sive for supplying DN-RAR constructs, and to Emily Gale for supplying the VAD quail embryos from the breeding colony at King’s College London, funded by BBSRC. This work was supported by NIH grant No. RO1 DK064973-01 and JDRF grant No. 1-2003-257 to VEP, and NIH grant No. RO1 CA84007 to PRM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Committee on Developmental Biology, The University of Chicago, 1027 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    D. Stafford

  2. The Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University of Chicago, 1027 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    A. Hornbruch

  3. Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology and Center for Molecular Oncology, Committees on Developmental Biology, Cancer Biology, and Genetics, University of Chicago, 924 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    P. R. Mueller

  4. The Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, and The Committees on Developmental Biology, Neurobiology, Evolutionary Biology, and Genetics, The University of Chicago, 1027 East 57th Street, IL, 60637, USA

    V. E. Prince

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  1. D. Stafford
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  2. A. Hornbruch
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  3. P. R. Mueller
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  4. V. E. Prince
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Correspondence to V. E. Prince.

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Edited by R.P. Elinson

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Stafford, D., Hornbruch, A., Mueller, P.R. et al. A conserved role for retinoid signaling in vertebrate pancreas development. Dev Genes Evol 214, 432–441 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-004-0420-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-004-0420-6

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