Conserved left–right asymmetry of nodal expression and alterations in murine situs inversus (original) (raw)

Nature volume 381, pages 158–161 (1996)Cite this article

Abstract

VERTEBRATES have characteristic and conserved left–right (L–R) visceral asymmetries, for example the left-sided heart. In humans, alterations of L–R development can have serious clinical implications, including cardiac defects1. Although little is known about how the embryonic L–R axis is established, a recent study in the chick embryo revealed L–R asymmetric expression of several previously cloned genes, including Cnr-1 (for chicken nodal-related-1), and indicated how this L–R molecular asymmetry might be important for subsequent visceral morphogenesis2. Here we show that _nodal_3 is asymmetrically expressed in mice at similar stages, as is Xnr-1 (for Xenopus nodal related-1)4 in frogs. We also examine nodal expression in two mouse mutations that perturb L–R development, namely _situs inversus viscerum (iv)_5, in which assignment of L–R asymmetry is apparently random and individuals develop either normally or are mirror-image-reversed (situs inversus), and _inversion of embryonic turning (inv)_6, in which all individuals develop with situs inversus. In both, nodal expression is strikingly affected, being reversed or converted to symmetry. These results further support a key role for nodal and _nodal_-related genes in interpreting and relaying L–R patterning information in vertebrates. To our knowledge, our results provide the first direct evidence that iv and inv normally function well before the appearance of morphological L–R asymmetry.

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Author notes

  1. Takahiko Yokoyama
    Present address: Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Tokyo Women's Medical College, Tokyo, 116, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Experimental Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA
    Linda A. Lowe & Michael R. Kuehn
  2. Division of Developmental Biology, Children's Hospital Research Foundation, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45229, USA
    Dorothy M. Supp & S. Steven Potter
  3. Department of Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University Medical School, Nashville, Tennessee, 37232, USA
    Karuna Sampath & Christopher V. E. Wright
  4. Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, 77030, USA
    Takahiko Yokoyama & Paul Overbeek

Authors

  1. Linda A. Lowe
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  2. Dorothy M. Supp
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  3. Karuna Sampath
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  4. Takahiko Yokoyama
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  5. Christopher V. E. Wright
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  6. S. Steven Potter
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  7. Paul Overbeek
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  8. Michael R. Kuehn
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Lowe, L., Supp, D., Sampath, K. et al. Conserved left–right asymmetry of nodal expression and alterations in murine situs inversus.Nature 381, 158–161 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/381158a0

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