VEB4: Early zygotic mRNA expressed asymmetrically along the animal-vegetal axis of the sea urchin embryo |
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| Authors: | Adnan Nasir Susan D Reynolds Lynne M Angerer Robert C Angerer |
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| Institution: | School of Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.;Departments of Orthopedics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.;Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA. |
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| Abstract: | We have analyzed a gene, designated VEB4 , that is expressed transiently in very early blastulae of the sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus . Sequence analysis of the complete open reading frame shows that VEB4 encodes an unusual, highly charged protein with a pl of 9.55. We show here that VEB4 mRNA accumulate in a spatial pattern that is indistinguishable from that of two other recently described genes encoding metallo-endoproteases, SpAN , related to astacin and SpHE , the hatching enzyme (Reynolds et al . 1992). VEB4 and other members of this gene set encode the earliest strictly zygotic gene products that have been identified. The asymmetric accumulation of VEB4 mRNA in non-vegetal blastomeres of the 16 cell embryo and their descendants reflects the animal-vegetal maternal developmental axis. |
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| Keywords: | animal-vegetal axis astacin blastula embryonic axis hatching enzyme in situ hybridization micromeres sea urchin zygotic gene expression |
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