tailieunhanh - Báo cáo khoa học: Bone morphogenetic proteins in the early development of zebrafish

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are known to be widely involved in various biological processes. Many of the members of the BMP family, as well as related factors, receptors and molecules in the BMP signaling path-way, have been isolated, but their precise functions are still unclear. | MINIREVIEW Bone morphogenetic proteins in the early development of zebrafish Mariko Kondo Department of BiologicalSciences The University of Tokyo Japan Keywords bone morphogenetic protein BMP dorsoventral patterning embryogenesis zebrafish Correspondence M. Kondo Graduate Schoolof Frontier Sciences The University of Tokyo Chiba Japan E-mail konmari@ Received 30 November 2006 accepted 27 February 2007 Bone morphogenetic proteins BMPs are known to be widely involved in various biological processes. Many of the members of the BMP family as well as related factors receptors and molecules in the BMP signaling pathway have been isolated but their precise functions are still unclear. In addition to the classical model organism Xenopus zebrafish Danio rerio is now considered to be a suitable model organism to study the roles of the BMP signaling pathway during embryogenesis. Mutagenesis screens have identified a number of mutants in the pathway. Although they do not cover the entire members of the BMP signaling cascade that are currently known they serve as a powerful tool to broaden our understanding of BMP functions in combination with other experimental techniques. doi Introduction Bone morphogenetic proteins BMPs now widely known for their involvement in many biological processes were first described for their bone morphogenetic activity and thus were given their names. Four proteins were initially identified and one of them BMP1 is a metalloproteinase. The other three BMP2 3 and 4 are members of the transforming growth factor p TGF-b superfamily of secreted signaling molecules. Subsequently molecular cloning studies have identified more than 20 members of the BMP subgroup in the TGF-b family from various species. Examples of these members are decapentaplegic Dpp and 60A from Drosophila Xenopus Vg1 and BMP5-7. Although it is not known whether all of the members of this subgroup are involved in bone differentiation .