RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Cleavage of the BMP-4 Antagonist Chordin by Zebrafish Tolloid
JF Science
JO Science
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP 1937
OP 1940
DO 10.1126/science.278.5345.1937
VO 278
IS 5345
A1 Blader, Patrick
A1 Rastegar, Sepand
A1 Fischer, Nadine
A1 Strähle, Uwe
YR 1997
UL http://science.sciencemag.org/content/278/5345/1937.abstract
AB Dorsoventral patterning of vertebrate andDrosophila embryos requires bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and antagonists of BMP activity. The Drosophila genetolloid encodes a metalloprotease similar to BMP-1 that interacts genetically with decapentaplegic, theDrosophila homolog of vertebrate BMP-2/4. Zebrafish embryos overexpressing a zebrafish homolog of tolloid were shown to resemble loss-of-function mutations in chordino, the zebrafish homolog of the Xenopus BMP-4 antagonist Chordin. Furthermore, Chordin was degraded by COS cells expressing Tolloid. These data suggest that Tolloid antagonizes Chordin activity by proteolytically cleaving Chordin. A conserved function for zebrafish and Drosophila Tolloid during embryogenesis is proposed.