Abstract
Elucidating the mechanisms involved in eliciting the formation of the various skeletal elements of the limb in their appropriate position and sequence along the anterior-posterior (A-P) axis is fundamental to understanding normal and abnormal vertebrate limb development. The zone of polarizing activity (ZPA) at the posterior margin of the developing limb bud appears to be the source of a diffusible morphogen, possibly retinoic acid, that becomes distributed in a graded fashion across the A-P axis of the limb, and specifies the A-P positional values of the skeletal elements of the limb according to its local concentration (Brickell and Tickle, 1989; Eichele, 1989). Homeobox-containing genes have been implicated in the regulation of pattern formation during development, and several homeobox genes exhibit spatially-restricted and temporally-regulated patterns of expression during vertebrate limb development (Oliver et al., 1988, 1989; Dolle et al., 1989; Hill et al., 1989; Robert et al., 1989; Wedden et al., 1989). In the present manuscript we describe some of our current studies on the isolation and characterization of several homeobox genes expressed during embryonic chick limb development, and present evidence indicating that some of these genes are expressed in a graded fashion along the A-P axis of the chick limb bud as positional values along the A-P axis are being specified. We also report on studies indicating that intercellular signalling via gap junctions may be involved in specification of pattern along the A-P axis of the chick limb bud.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Allen, F., Tickle, C., and Warner, A., 1990, The role of gap junctions in patterning of the chick limb bud, Development 108: 623.
Blake, K. J., Gong, S.-G., Barembaum, M., Paiva-Borduas, J., Kosher, R. A., and Upholt, W. B., 1990, Characterization and expression of chicken homeobox-containing genes during limb development, submitted for publication.
Brickell, P. M. and Tickle, C., 1989, Morphogens in chick limb development, BioEssays 11: 145.
Coelho, C. N. D. and Kosher, R. A., 1990, A gradient of gap junctional communication along the anterior-posterior axis of the developing chick limb bud, submitted for publication.
Coelho, C. N. D., Sumoy, L., Upholt, W. B., and Kosher, R. A., 1990, Temporal and spatial analysis of the expression of the homeobox-containing gene GHox-8 during embryonic chick limb development, in preparation.
Dolle, P., Izpisua-Belmonte, J.-C., Falkenstein, H., Renucci, A., and Duboule, D., 1989, Coordinate expression of the murine Hox-5 complex homoeobox-containing genes during limb pattern formation, Nature, 342: 767.
Duboule, D., Boncinelli, E., DeRobertis, E., Featherstone, M., Lonai, P., Oliver, G., and Ruddle, F. H., 1990, An update of mouse and human HOX gene nomenclature, Genomics, 7: 458.
Eichele, G., 1989, Retinoids and vertebrate limb pattern formation, Trends in Genetics, 5: 246.
El-Fouly, M. H., Trosko, J. E., and Chang, C.-C., 1987, Scrape-loading and dye transfer. A rapid and simple technique to study gap junctional intercellular communication, Exp. Cell Res., 168: 422–430.
Hill, R. E., Jones, P. F., Rees, A. R., Sime, C. M., Justice, M. J., Copeland, N. G., Jenkins, N. A., Graham, E., and Davidson, D. R., 1989, A family of mouse homeo box-containing genes: molecular structure, chromosomal location, and developmental expression of Hox-7.1, Genes and Dev. 3: 26.
Hossain, M. Z., Wilkens, L. R., Mehta, P. P., Loewenstein, W., and Bertram, J. S., 1989, Enhancement of gap junctional communication by retinoids correlates with their ability to inhibit neoplastic transformation, Carcinogenesis, 10: 1743.
Kelley, R. O. and Fallon, J. F., 1978, Identification and distribution of gap junctions in the mesoderm of the developing chick limb bud, J. Embryol. Exp. Morph. 46: 99.
Kelley, R. O. and Fallon, J. F., 1983, A freeze-fracture and morphometric analysis of gap junctions of limb bud cells: initial studies on a possible mechanism for morphogenetic signalling during development, in: “Limb Development and Regeneration, Part A,” J. F. Fallon and A. I. Caplan, eds., Allen R. Liss, Inc., New York.
Mavilio, F., Simeone, A., Giampaolo, A., Faiella, A., Zappavigna, V., Acampora, D., Poiana, G., Russo, G., Peschle, C., and Boncinelli, E., 1986, Differential and stage-related expression in embryonic tissues of a new human homoeobox gene, Nature, 324: 664.
Mehta, P. P., Bertram, J. S., and Loewenstein, W. R., The actions of retinoids on cellular growth correlate with their actions on gap junctional communication, J. Cell Biol., 108: 1053.
Oliver, G., Wright, C. V. E., Hardwicke, J., and DeRobertis, E. M., 1988, A gradient of homeodomain protein in developing forelimbs of Xenopus and mouse embryos, Cell, 55: 1017.
Oliver, G., Sidell, N., Fiske, W., Heinzmann, C., Mohandas, T., Sparkes, R. S., and DeRobertis, E. M., 1989, Complementary homeo protein gradients in the developing limb, Genes and Dev, 3: 641.
Robert, B., Sassoon, D., Jacq, B., Gehring, W., and Buckingham, M., 1989, Hox-7, a mouse homeobox gene with a novel pattern of expression during embryogenesis, EMBO J., 8: 91.
Smith, S. M., Pang, K., Sundin, O., Wedden, S. E., Thaller, C., and Eichele, G., 1989, Molecular approaches to vertebrate limb morphogenesis, Development 1989 Supplement: 121.
Sumoy, L., Davidson, D. R., Kosher, R. A., and Upholt, W. B., 1990, Isolation and characterization of GHox-8, a chicken homeobox-containing gene expressed during chick limb development, in preparation.
Thaller, C. and Eichele, G., 1987, Identification and spatial distribution of retinoids in the developing chick limb bud, Nature, 327: 625.
Wedden, S., Pang, K., and Eichele, G., 1989, Expression pattern of homeobox-containing genes during chick embryogenesis, Development, 105: 639.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kosher, R.A., Upholt, W.B., Coelho, C.N.D., Blake, K.J., Sumoy, L. (1991). Homeobox-Containing Genes and GAP Junctional Communication in Pattern Formation during Chick Limb Development. In: Hinchliffe, J.R., Hurle, J.M., Summerbell, D. (eds) Developmental Patterning of the Vertebrate Limb. NATO ASI Series, vol 205. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3310-8_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3310-8_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6457-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-3310-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive