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Brief Communication

Nature Cell Biology 4, 981–985 (1 December 2002) | doi:10.1038/ncb890

Extraembryonic proteases regulate Nodal signalling during gastrulation

S|[eacute]|verine Beck , J. Ann Le Good , Marcela Guzman , Nadav Ben Haim , Karine Roy , Friedrich Beermann & Daniel B. Constam

During gastrulation, a cascade of inductive tissue interactions converts pre-existing polarity in the mammalian embryo into antero-posterior pattern. This process is triggered by Nodal, a protein related to transforming growth factor-β (TFG-β) that is expressed in the epiblast and visceral endoderm, and its co-receptor Cripto, which is induced downstream of Nodal.