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Heads or tails? Retinoic acid will decide

Heads or tails? Retinoic acid will decide A recent study (Niederreither et al. Nat Genet 1999;21:444–448 [Ref. 1]) describes the phenotype of a gene knockout for an enzyme, retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (RALDH‐2), that synthesises retinoic acid (RA) in the early embryo. The effects generated by this single enzyme mutation are remarkably similar to those previously described in vitamin A–deprivation studies and compound retinoic acid receptor knockouts, which involve multiple systems of the embryo. With other data on the distribution of RA, its role in axial specification of the early embryo is considerably clarified. Surprisingly, it seems that head development is unaffected in these RALDH‐2 knockout embryos; thus, the anterior of the embryo does not require RA, despite the observations that the hindbrain seems exquisitely sensitive to RA perturbation. Head development may be realised by a cytochrome P450 enzyme (CYP26), which has been described recently. Between these two opposing forces, the hindbrain develops. BioEssays 21:809–812, 1999. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png BioEssays Wiley

Heads or tails? Retinoic acid will decide

Maden, Malcolm
BioEssays , Volume 21 (10) – Jan 1, 1999
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References (37)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 Wiley Subscription Services
ISSN
0265-9247
eISSN
1521-1878
DOI
10.1002/(SICI)1521-1878(199910)21:10<809::AID-BIES2>3.0.CO;2-0
pmid
10497330
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A recent study (Niederreither et al. Nat Genet 1999;21:444–448 [Ref. 1]) describes the phenotype of a gene knockout for an enzyme, retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (RALDH‐2), that synthesises retinoic acid (RA) in the early embryo. The effects generated by this single enzyme mutation are remarkably similar to those previously described in vitamin A–deprivation studies and compound retinoic acid receptor knockouts, which involve multiple systems of the embryo. With other data on the distribution of RA, its role in axial specification of the early embryo is considerably clarified. Surprisingly, it seems that head development is unaffected in these RALDH‐2 knockout embryos; thus, the anterior of the embryo does not require RA, despite the observations that the hindbrain seems exquisitely sensitive to RA perturbation. Head development may be realised by a cytochrome P450 enzyme (CYP26), which has been described recently. Between these two opposing forces, the hindbrain develops. BioEssays 21:809–812, 1999. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Journal

BioEssays – Wiley

Published: Jan 1, 1999

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