Mesp2: a novel mouse gene expressed in the presegmented mesoderm and essential for segmentation initiation.
Open Access
- 15 July 1997
- journal article
- Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Genes & Development
- Vol. 11 (14), 1827-1839
- https://doi.org/10.1101/gad.11.14.1827
Abstract
We isolated a novel bHLH protein gene Mesp2 (for mesoderm posterior 2) that cross-hybridizes with Mesp1 expressed in the early mouse mesoderm. Mesp2 is expressed in the rostral presomitic mesoderm, but down-regulated immediately after the formation of the segmented somites. To determine the function of MesP2 protein (MesP2) in somitogenesis, we generated Mesp2-deficient mice by gene targeting. The homozygous Mesp2 (-/-) mice died shortly after birth and had fused vertebral columns and dorsal root ganglia, with impaired sclerotomal polarity. The earliest defect in the homozygous embryos was a lack of segmented somites. Their disruption of the metameric features, altered expression of Mox-1, Pax-1, and Dll1, and lack of expression of Notch1, Notch2, and FGFR1 suggested that MesP2 controls sclerotomal polarity by regulating the signaling systems mediated by notch-delta and FGF, which are essential for segmentation.Keywords
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