Abstract
To establish the vertebrate body plan, it is fundamental to create left–right asymmetry in the lateral-plate mesoderm to correctly position the organs. However, it is also crucial to maintain symmetry between the left and the right sides of the presomitic mesoderm, ensuring the allocation of symmetrical body structures, such as the axial skeleton and skeletal muscles. Here, we show that terra is an early left-sided expressed gene that links left–right patterning with bilateral synchronization of the segmentation clock.
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Wilson and D. Stemple for the zebrafish embryos, M. Tada and C.-P. Heisenberg for reagents, I. Campos for technical support with MO injections, A. Gaspar for histological work, C. Domingues for the SDS–PAGE gels and I. Marques for sequence analysis. We are grateful to S. Thorsteinsdóttir, S. Simões, W. Wood, S. Rodrigues, R. Andrade, A. Jacinto and A. Coutinho for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (POCTI/45914/BCI/2002). L.S. was supported by a FCT fellowship (SFRH/BPD/6755/2001). R.L. was supported by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (FCG)/Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional (IEFP). The authors are members of the FP6 European Network of Excellence 'Cells into Organs'.
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Saúde, L., Lourenço, R., Gonçalves, A. et al. terra is a left–right asymmetry gene required for left–right synchronization of the segmentation clock. Nat Cell Biol 7, 918–920 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1294
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1294
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