Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Shiratori, Hidetaka
• Hamada, Hiroshi

Titel

TGFβ signaling in establishing left–right asymmetry

Ist Teil von

• Seminars in cell & developmental biology, 2014-08, Vol.32, p.80-84

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •The pair of Nodal and Lefty has a conserved role in L–R asymmetry.•Nodal acts as the left side determinant while Lefty restricts the action of Nodal to the left side.•Asymmetric expression of Nodal and Lefty is established by regulatory loops between the two genes. Two TGFβ-related proteins, Nodal and Lefty, are asymmetrically expressed and play central roles in establishing left–right (L–R) asymmetry of our body. Nodal acts as a left-side determinant whereas Lefty restricts Nodal activity to the left side by acting as a feedback inhibitor of Nodal. While the mechanism for symmetry breaking is variable among animals, the pair of Nodal and Lefty has a conserved role in the L–R asymmetry pathway. Function and regulation of Nodal and Lefty have been revealed in the last decades, but in this review we summarize the role of TGFβ-related proteins together with more recent findings. We mainly discuss observations made with mouse embryos, unless indicated otherwise.