Analysis of molecular mechanism and cell-cell interactions in the establishment of left-right asymmetry

脊椎动物心脏和肠道器官的左右不对称性是在其发育过程中产生的。我们调查了shh，Pitx 2和视黄酸参与了这一过程，并且它们是左撇子的原因。特别地，我们从斑马鱼克隆了Pitx 2基因，并分析了其表达模式、功能、基因调控以及与视黄酸的相互作用（Tsukui et al.，另一方面，我们克隆了与器官形成和图案形成密切相关的T-box基因家族的几个成员，以研究它们在左右不对称性中的功能。我们分析了它们在斑马鱼胚胎中的表达模式（Yonei-Tamura等人，1999 ; Tamura等人，1999），并证实了Tbx 5/4在鸡胚中的重要作用（Rodriguez-Esteban et al.，1999年）。我们还开始了一个关于比目鱼和左右不对称的项目。我们检查和评估视觉交叉作为一个重要的表型左右不对称，并作为一个路标左右不对称。我们还克隆了左右不对称关键基因的几个PCR片段，包括来自比目鱼的Pitx 2、fgf 8、Noda 11和msx（2）。1999年）。

Left-right asymmetry in heart and intestinal organs of vertebrates is produced in the process of their development. We investigated that shh, Pitx2 and retinoic acid are involved in this process, and that they are responsible for the left handedness. In particular, we cloned Pitx2 gene from zebrafish and analyzed its expression pattern, function, gene regulations, and interaction with retinoic acid (Tsukui et al., 1999).On the other hand, we cloned several members of T-box gene family, which are largely involved in organ for mation and patterning, in order to examine their functions on left-right asymmetry. We analyzed their expression patterns in zebrafish embryo (Yonei-Tamura et al., 1999 ; Tamura et al., 1999), and confirmed an important role of Tbx5/4 in chick embryo (Rodriguez-Esteban et al., 1999).We also started a project on flounder and left-right asymmetry. We examined and evaluated the visual chiasma as a significant phenotype of left-right asymmetry, and used as a guidepost of left-right asymmetry. We also cloned several PCR fragments of key genes on left-right asymmetry, includeing Pitx2, fgf8, Noda11, and msx (2) from the flounder.The above results were published in a review article (Tamura et al., 1999).