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Developmental biology

Morphogens hitch a greasy ride

Nature volume 435, pages 31–33 (2005)Cite this article

Morphogen proteins guide the development of many tissues in animals, but how are these insoluble proteins ferried around the body? A well-known group of lipid transporters might be the answer.

Every once in a while, a scientific discovery results in the marriage of two previously disparate fields. On page 58 of this issue, such a romance is suggested by Eaton and colleagues1. On the one hand, there are morphogens — signalling proteins that play an essential part in animal development by inducing specific cellular fates in a concentration-dependent manner2,3. How these proteins move from the cells that synthesize them to neighbouring cells to create a concentration gradient is an area of intense debate. On the other hand, there are lipoprotein particles, most famous for their role in lipid transport and heart disease. The marriage, witnessed by intriguing experiments described in the new paper, raises the possibility that lipoprotein particles carry morphogens as they move through tissues during development.

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Figure 1: Morphogen movement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, HHSC 1104, 701 West 168th Street, New York, 10032, New York, USA

    Richard S. Mann

  2. the Centro de Biologí-a Molecular ‘Severo Ochoa’, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, 28049, Spain

    Joaquim Culi

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  1. Richard S. Mann
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  2. Joaquim Culi
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Mann, R., Culi, J. Morphogens hitch a greasy ride. Nature 435, 31–33 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/435030a

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