Hox genes control vertebrate body elongation by collinear Wnt repression

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Abstract

In vertebrates, the total number of vertebrae is precisely defined. Vertebrae derive from embryonic somites which are continuously produced posteriorly from the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) during body formation. We show that in the chicken embryo, activation of posterior Hox genes (paralogs 9-13) in the tail-bud correlates with the slowing-down of axis elongation. Our data indicate that a subset of progressively more posterior Hox genes, which are collinearly activated in vertebral precursors, repress Wnt activity with increasing strength. This leads to a graded repression of the Brachyury/T transcription factor, reducing mesoderm ingression and slowing down the elongation process. Due to the continuation of somite formation, this mechanism leads to the progressive reduction of PSM size. This ultimately brings the retinoic acid (RA)-producing segmented region in close vicinity to the tail bud, potentially accounting for the termination of segmentation and axis elongation.

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Nicolas Denans

Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Tadahiro Iimura

Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Olivier Pourquié

Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC), University of Strasbourg, Illkirch, France

For correspondence
pourquie@igbmc.fr

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

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