Xwnt8; ventral marginal zone
Xwnt8, nucleic acid
last modified August 22
A member of the wingless/int-1 related gene family. Cloned by Christian et al. (1991). Expressed in ventro-lateral mesoderm from MBT. This gene product has potent axis inducing activity, see McMahon and Moon (1989), Sokol et al., (1991) and Smith and Harland (1991). Photos and text provided by Randy Moon and Jan Christian.
Whole mount in situ hybridization localizing Xwnt-8
transcripts in the gastrula stage embryo. The dorsal lip is shown, and
does not express Xwnt-8, which is primarily expressed in prospective
ventral-lateral mesoderm. Vegetal view, dorsal is to the right.
Injection of RNAs encoding members of the Xwnt-1 class of Wnts, which
includes Xwnt-8, into the ventral side of cleavage stage embryos induces
ectopic sites of expression of goosecoid, which is a marker of the
gastrula organizer. In the image shown (a vegetal pole view) arrows
denote the sites of goosecoid expression in an embryo injected with
Xwnt-8 RNA, and the two images below show that these Xwnt-8-injected
embryos develop a secondary axis Vegetal view.
Shown are embryos at the neurula stage, one is a control embryo (right), and
the other (left) displays a duplication of the embryonic axis typically observed
after injection of mRNAs encoding members of the Xwnt-1 class of Wnts (e.g., Xwnt-1, Xwnt-8, Xwnt-3A, Xwnt-8b), or other members of the Wnt signaling pathway including beta-catenin, a kinase dead glycogen synthase kinase-3, and dishevelled (see recent literature for these papers).
Shown are embryos at the tadpole stage after injection of Xwnt-8 RNA into either the dorsal marginal zone of early embryos (resulting in a wild-type phenotype), or into the ventral marginal zone (resulting in a duplication of the embryonic axis).
- Reference (cloning); Christian, J.L., McMahon, J.A., MaMahon, A.P., and Moon, R.T. (1991). Xwnt-8, a Xenopus wnt-1/int-1 related gene responsive to mesoderm inducing growth factors may play a role in ventral mesodermal patterning during early development. Development 111, 1045-1055.
- Reference (activity); McMahon, A.P. and Moon, R.T. (1989). Ectopic expression of the proto-oncogene Int-1 in Xenopus embryos leads to duplication of the embryonic axis. Cell 58, 1075-1084. Smith, W.C., and Harland, R. M. Injected Xwnt-8 acts early in Xenopus embryos to promote formation of a vegetal dorsalizing center. Cell 67, 753-766. Christian, J. L., and Moon, R. T. (1993). Interactions between Xwnt-8 and Spemann organizer signaling pathways generate dorsoventral pattern in the embryonic mesoderm of Xenopus. Genes and Development 7, 13-28.
- Clone; Xwnt8
- Vector; pGEM1
- Insert; 1.42 kb Xwnt8 cDNA, EcoRI fragment.
- plasmid map from Moon lab database
- download sequence
- Sense transcripts; cut with PvuII transcribe with SP6
- Antisense transcripts; cut with BamHI transcribe with T7
- Avaliable from; Randy Moon
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Whole mount in situ hybridization localizing Xwnt-8
transcripts in the gastrula stage embryo. The dorsal lip is shown, and
does not express Xwnt-8, which is primarily expressed in prospective
ventral-lateral mesoderm. Vegetal view, dorsal is to the right.
Shown are embryos at the neurula stage, one is a control embryo (right), and
the other (left) displays a duplication of the embryonic axis typically observed
after injection of mRNAs encoding members of the Xwnt-1 class of Wnts (e.g., Xwnt-1, Xwnt-8, Xwnt-3A, Xwnt-8b), or other members of the Wnt signaling pathway including beta-catenin, a kinase dead glycogen synthase kinase-3, and dishevelled (see recent literature for these papers).
Shown are embryos at the tadpole stage after injection of Xwnt-8 RNA into either the dorsal marginal zone of early embryos (resulting in a wild-type phenotype), or into the ventral marginal zone (resulting in a duplication of the embryonic axis).
