EGF-CFC proteins are essential coreceptors for the TGF-β signals Vg1 and GDF1

  1. Simon K. Cheng1,
  2. Felix Olale1,
  3. James T. Bennett1,
  4. Ali H. Brivanlou2,4, and
  5. Alexander F. Schier1,3
  1. 1Developmental Genetics Program, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, Department of Cell Biology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA; 2Laboratory of Molecular Vertebrate Embryology, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10021, USA

Abstract

The TGF-β signals Nodal, Activin, GDF1, and Vg1 have been implicated in mesoderm induction and left-right patterning. Nodal and Activin both activate Activin receptors, but only Nodal requires EGF-CFC coreceptors for signaling. We report that Vg1 and GDF1 signaling in zebrafish also depends on EGF-CFC proteins, but not on Nodal signals. Correspondingly, we find that in Xenopus Vg1 and GDF1 bind to and signal through Activin receptors only in the presence of EGF-CFC proteins. These results establish that multiple TGF-β signals converge on Activin receptor/EGF-CFC complexes and suggest a more widespread requirement for coreceptors in TGF-β signaling than anticipated previously.

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Footnotes

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  • Corresponding authors.

  • Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1041203.

    • Received September 12, 2002.
    • Accepted November 8, 2002.
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