Intracellular communication among morphogen signaling pathways during vertebrate body plan formation

Abstract

During embryonic development in vertebrates, morphogens play an important role in cell fate determination and morphogenesis. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) belonging to the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) family control the dorsal–ventral (DV) patterning of embryos, whereas other morphogens such as fibroblast growth factor (FGF), Wnt family members, and retinoic acid (RA) regulate the formation of the anterior–posterior (AP) axis. Activation of morphogen signaling results in changes in the expression of target genes including transcription factors that direct cell fate along the body axes. To ensure the correct establishment of the body plan, the processes of DV and AP axis formation must be linked and coordinately regulated by a fine-tuning of morphogen signaling. In this review, we focus on the interplay of various intracellular regulatory mechanisms and discuss how communication among morphogen signaling pathways modulates body axis formation in vertebrate embryos.