dreher is a spontaneous mouse mutation in which adult animals display a complex phenotype associated with hearing loss, neurological, pigmentation and skeletal abnormalities. During early embryogenesis, the neural tube of dreher mutants is abnormally shaped in the region of the rhomboencephalon, due to problems in the formation of a proper roof plate over the otic hindbrain. We have studied the...

The neural crest is a unique population of mitotically active, multipotent progenitors that arise at the vertebrate neural plate border. Here, we show that the helix-loop-helix transcriptional regulator Id3 has a novel role in cell cycle progression and survival of neural crest progenitors in Xenopus. Id3 is localized at the neural plate border during gastrulation and neurulation, overlapping t...

The initial stage in the development of the vertebrate nervous system is the formation of the neural plate from a section of dorsal ectoderm during neurulation. Lateral edges of the neural plate subsequently protrude to form the neural folds, which eventually fuse at the dorsal midline producing the neural tube. During this stage of morphogenesis, some neural fold cells migrate out of the neura...

Yes-associated protein 65 (YAP) contains multiple protein-protein interaction domains and functions as both a transcriptional co-activator and as a scaffolding protein. Mouse embryos lacking YAP did not survive past embryonic day 8.5 and showed signs of defective yolk sac vasculogenesis, chorioallantoic fusion, and anterior-posterior (A-P) axis elongation. Given that the YAP knockout mouse defe...

introduction: during early neural tube formation, the notochord is essential for the induction of ectoderm and for the subsequent differentiation of the neuroepithelium forming diverse cell types in the neural tube. due to the key role of the glycoconjugates in many developmental events, the early distribution of these molecules in early notochordal interaction with adjacent tissues were studie...

Sonic hedgehog signalling is essential for the embryonic development of many tissues including the central nervous system, where it controls the pattern of cellular differentiation. A genome-wide screen of neural progenitor cells to evaluate the Shh signalling-regulated transcriptome identified the forkhead transcription factor Foxj1. In both chick and mouse Foxj1 is expressed in the ventral mi...

The differentiation of neural crest cells from progenitors located in the dorsal neural tube appears to involve three sequential steps: the specification of premigratory neural crest cell fate, the delamination of these cells from the neural epithelium and the migration of neural crest cells in the periphery. BMP signaling has been implicated in the specification of neural crest cell fate but t...

Neural crest cells are induced at the neural plate border by the combined action of transcription factors and signaling molecules. Here, we show that Axud1, a downstream effector of Wnt signaling, represents a critical missing link that integrates signaling and transcriptional cues to mediate neural crest formation. Axud1 is a transcription factor expressed in neural crest progenitors in a Wnt1...

The genetic control of mammalian epithelial polarity and dynamics can be studied in vivo at cellular resolution during morphogenesis of the mouse neural tube. Themouse neural plate is a simple epithelium that is transformed into a columnar pseudostratified tube over the course of ∼24 h. Apical F-actin is known to be important for neural tube closure, but the precise roles of actin dynamics in t...

The genetic control of mammalian epithelial polarity and dynamics can be studied in vivo at cellular resolution during morphogenesis of the mouse neural tube. Themouse neural plate is a simple epithelium that is transformed into a columnar pseudostratified tube over the course of ∼24 h. Apical F-actin is known to be important for neural tube closure, but the precise roles of actin dynamics in t...