XENOPUS EOMESODERMIN IS EXPRESSED IN NEURAL DIFFERENTIATION

Our initial description of the Xenopus gene Eomesodermin (Eomes) indic ated that it is expressed largely if not entirely in mesodermal cells of gastrula stage embryos. A more detailed examination, described here , shows that it continues to be expressed in the most anterior (future head) mesoderm during gastrula and neurula stages. However, during ta il-bud stages, Eomes expression is re-born in the most anterior part o f the brain, becoming strongly transcribed in the olfactory region of the telencephalon. This later Eomes expression marks a very localized region of the forebrain distinct from that of Otx-2, anterior to that of En-l and overlapping that of Sox-3. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Irela nd Ltd. All rights reserved.