Regional gene expression in the Xenopus gastrula

Studies on the early embryonic development of Xenopus laevis contributed much to the understanding of vertebrate patterning. Gastrula stages are of particular interest because establishment of the axis and germ layer formation take place during these stages. While many genes belonging to several signaling pathways including FGF, Wnt and TGF-beta, have been implicated in patterning the gastrula embryo, the hierarchical interactions between these factors are incompletely known. To study this question, we took advantage of microarray technology to create a regional gene expression profile for the Xenopus gastrula.

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Tanegashima K, Zhao H, Rebbert ML, Dawid IB