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It takes a lot to make the segmentation clock tick

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 8, page 3 (2007)Cite this article

The mRNA levels of a few genes are known to oscillate with the segmentation clock. Most of these are members of the Notch signalling pathway, although a component of the Wnt pathway, Axin2 , is known to oscillate out of phase with them. Olivier Pourquié and colleagues used microarrays to obtain a more comprehensive list of the molecular components of the clock. They used the expression pattern of one known oscillator, Lfng (lunatic fringe), to select a series of 17 mouse embryos that covered an entire oscillation cycle. Microarray data from these samples confirmed the oscillations of known clock genes, and a statistical algorithm was applied to detect other oscillating transcripts.

The transcripts clustered into two groups that were directly out of phase. The known Notch-pathway components clustered with further Notch components, including the Wnt inhibitor Nkd1 (naked cuticle 1 homologue), and also with fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-pathway components. Analysis of a mutant that is defective in Notch signalling revealed that FGF components oscillate in parallel with Notch rather than being dependent on it. The other cluster consisted mainly of Wnt components and their downstream targets, although only a subset of Wnt targets was involved.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Dequéant, M.-L. et al. A complex oscillating network of signaling genes underlies the mouse segmentation clock. Science 9 November 2006 (doi:10.1126/science.1133141)

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Authors
  1. Patrick Goymer
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Goymer, P. It takes a lot to make the segmentation clock tick. Nat Rev Genet 8, 3 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2028

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