In vertebrates, the embryonic dorsal midline is a crucial signalling centre that patterns the surrounding tissues during development. Members of the FoxA subfamily of transcription factors are expressed in the structures that compose this centre. @entity18501 is essential for dorsal midline development in mammals, since knock-out @entity19 embryos lack a definitive node, notochord and floor plate. The related gene foxA4 is only present in amphibians. Expression begins in the blastula - @entity40835 and - @entity3684 expressing centre (BCNE) and is later restricted to the dorsal midline derivatives of the Spemann's organiser. It was suggested that the early functions of @entity1 @entity10354 are carried out by foxA4 in frogs, but functional experiments were needed to test this hypothesis. Here, we show that some important dorsal midline functions of @entity1 @entity10354 are exerted by foxA4 in @entity1238 . We provide new evidence that the latter prevents the respecification of dorsal midline precursors towards contiguous fates, inhibiting prechordal and paraxial mesoderm development in favour of the notochord. In addition, we show that foxA4 is required for the correct regionalisation and maintenance of the central nervous system. FoxA4 participates in constraining the prospective rostral forebrain territory during neural specification and is necessary for the correct segregation of the most anterior ectodermal derivatives, such as the cement gland and the pituitary anlagen. Moreover, the early expression of foxA4 in the BCNE (which contains precursors of the whole forebrain and most of the midbrain and hindbrain) is directly required to restrict anterior neural development.

FoxA4 Favours Notochord Formation by Inhibiting Contiguous Mesodermal Fates and Restricts Anterior Neural Development in XXXX Embryos.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['mammalian'] @entity1238 :: ('8355', 'Species') :: ['Xenopus'] @entity3684 :: ('373646(Tax:8355)', 'Gene') :: ['noggin'] @entity19 :: ('10090', 'Species') :: ['mouse'] @entity18501 :: ('15376(Tax:10090)', 'Gene') :: ['Foxa2'] @entity40835 :: ('398045(Tax:8355)', 'Gene') :: ['chordin'] @entity10354 :: ('3170', 'Gene') :: ['foxa2']
@entity1238 :: (8355,Species) :: ['Xenopus']
