Genetic interaction between Wnt/β-catenin and BMP receptor signaling during formation of the AER and the dorsal–ventral axis in the limb
- Natalia Soshnikova1,
- Dietmar Zechner1,
- Joerg Huelsken1,5,
- Yuji Mishina2,6,
- Richard R. Behringer2,
- Makoto M. Taketo3,
- E. Bryan Crenshaw III4, and
- Walter Birchmeier1,7
- 1 Max-Delbrück-Centrum for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rössle-Straße 10, 13125Berlin, Germany
- 2 Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
- 3 Department of Pharmacology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Yoshida-Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
- 4 Mammalian Neurogenetics Group, Center for Childhood Communication, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
Abstract
By conditional gene ablation in mice, we found that β-catenin, an essential downstream effector of canonical Wnt signaling, is a key regulator of formation of the apical ectodermal ridge (AER) and of the dorsal–ventral axis of the limbs. By generation of compound mutants, we also show that β-catenin acts downstream of the BMP receptor IA in AER induction, but upstream or parallel in dorsal–ventral patterning. Thus, AER formation and dorsal–ventral patterningof limbs are tightly controlled by an intricate interplay between Wnt/β-catenin and BMP receptor signaling.
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Footnotes
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Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.263003.
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↵5 Present address: ISREC, Chemin des Boveresses 155, Lausanne, Switzerland
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↵6 Present address: Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
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↵7 Corresponding author. E-MAIL wbirch{at}mdc-berlin.de; FAX 49-30-94062656
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- Accepted June 6, 2003.
- Received May 14, 2002.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
