Hedgehog (Hh) signalling gradients control many developmental processes and are influenced by numerous positive and negative regulators. The transmembrane protein Brother of Cdo (Boc) has been implicated in Sonic hedgehog (Shh)-mediated commissural axon guidance in the CNS, but how Boc affects the cellular Hh response in vivo is unclear. Here, Rolf Karlstrom and colleagues reveal that Boc is cell-autonomously required for Hh-mediated ventral CNS patterning in zebrafish (see p. 75). The umleitung (uml) zebrafish mutant is characterised by defects in retinotectal projections. The researchers show first that uml encodes Boc. Then, by analysing the phenotypes of uml mutants, they show that Boc is a positive regulator of Hh signalling in the spinal cord, hypothalamus, pituitary, somites and upper jaw, but that Boc might be a negative regulator of Hh signalling in the lower jaw. Overall, these results reveal a role for Boc in ventral CNS cells that receive high levels of Hh, and uncover novel roles for Boc in vertebrate development.
Boc: novel roles in Shh regulation
Boc: novel roles in Shh regulation. Development 1 January 2011; 138 (1): e0105. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.