Xwnt11and the regulation of gastrulation inXenopus

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Abstract
The molecular basis of gastrulation is poorly understood. In this paper we address this problem by taking advantage of the observation that the transcription activator Brachyury is essential for gastrulation movements inXenopusand mouse embryos. We infer from this observation that amongst the target genes of Brachyury are some that are involved in the regulation of gastrulation. In the course of a screen for Brachyury targets we identifiedXwnt11. Use of a dominant-negative Xwnt11 construct confirms that signalling by this class of Wnts is essential for normal gastrulation movements, and further investigation suggests that Xwnt11 signals not through the canonical Wnt signalling pathway involving GSK-3 and β-catenin but through another route, which may require small GTPases such as Rho and Rac. Future work will concentrate on elucidating the Xwnt11 signal transduction pathway and on investigating its influence on cell shape and polarity duringXenopusgastrulation.