PUBLICATION
Visualizing retinoic acid morphogen gradients
- Authors
- Schilling, T.F., Sosnik, J., Nie, Q.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-160608-14
- Date
- 2016
- Source
- Methods in cell biology 133: 139-163 (Chapter)
- Registered Authors
- Schilling, Tom, Sosnik, Julian
- Keywords
- Diffusion, FRET, Morphogen, Retinoic acid, Rhombomere, Zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Body Patterning
- Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer/methods*
- Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods*
- Morphogenesis
- Receptors, Retinoic Acid/genetics
- Receptors, Retinoic Acid/metabolism
- Recombinant Fusion Proteins/genetics
- Recombinant Fusion Proteins/metabolism
- Tretinoin/metabolism*
- Zebrafish/genetics
- Zebrafish/growth & development*
- PubMed
- 27263412 Full text @ Meth. Cell. Biol.
Citation
Schilling, T.F., Sosnik, J., Nie, Q. (2016) Visualizing retinoic acid morphogen gradients. Methods in cell biology. 133:139-163.
Abstract
Morphogens were originally defined as secreted signaling molecules that diffuse from local sources to form concentration gradients, which specify multiple cell fates. More recently morphogen gradients have been shown to incorporate a range of mechanisms including short-range signal activation, transcriptional/translational feedback, and temporal windows of target gene induction. Many critical cell-cell signals implicated in both embryonic development and disease, such as Wnt, fibroblast growth factor (Fgf), hedgehog (Hh), transforming growth factor beta (TGFb), and retinoic acid (RA), are thought to act as morphogens, but key information on signal propagation and ligand distribution has been lacking for most. The zebrafish provides unique advantages for genetics and imaging to address gradients during early embryonic stages when morphogens help establish major body axes. This has been particularly informative for RA, where RA response elements (RAREs) driving fluorescent reporters as well as Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) reporters of receptor binding have provided evidence for gradients, as well as regulatory mechanisms that attenuate noise and enhance gradient robustness in vivo. Here we summarize available tools in zebrafish and discuss their utility for studying dynamic regulation of RA morphogen gradients, through combined experimental and computational approaches.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping