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Letter

Nature Cell Biology 8, 1407–1414 (1 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/ncb1506

A novel function of Drosophila eIF4A as a negative regulator of Dpp/BMP signalling that mediates SMAD degradation

Jinghong Li & Willis X. Li

Signalling by the TGF-β superfamily member and BMP orthologue Decapentaplegic (Dpp) is crucial for multiple developmental programmes and has to be tightly regulated. Here, we demonstrate that the Drosophila Dpp pathway is negatively regulated by eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A (eIF4A), which mediates activation-dependent degradation of the Dpp signalling components Mad and Medea.