Cleavage of the BMP-4 Antagonist Chordin by Zebrafish Tolloid

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Dorsoventral patterning of vertebrate and Drosophila embryos requires bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and antagonists of BMP activity. The Drosophila gene tolloid encodes a metalloprotease similar to BMP-1 that interacts genetically with decapentaplegic , the Drosophila 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.