Editor's Summary

13 September 2007

An early task for microRNAs

The generation of the organizer tissue is a central event in embryology. Commonly called Spemann's organizer, this collection of cells is induced on the dorsal side of the developing embryo by an asymmetry in signalling by Nodal, a transforming growth factor ligand. Little is known about the nature of this asymmetry. Now Martello et al. show that microRNAs are involved in this process. Two microRNAs, miR-15 and miR-16, restrict the size of the organizer by generating a dorsal bias in expression of the Nodal receptor Acvr2a. MicroRNAs are small single-stranded RNA molecules that help regulate gene expression; their many and diverse functions are only just beginning to be fully explored. This new work shows that microRNAs act at a crucial phase in embryo patterning, and that they provide a missing link between -catenin and Nodal signalling.

Article: MicroRNA control of Nodal signalling

Graziano Martello, Luca Zacchigna, Masafumi Inui, Marco Montagner, Maddalena Adorno, Anant Mamidi, Leonardo Morsut, Sandra Soligo, Uyen Tran, Sirio Dupont, Michelangelo Cordenonsi, Oliver Wessely & Stefano Piccolo

doi:10.1038/nature06100

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (598K) | Supplementary information