Ye Liu's Project

Characterization of murine embryos which have lost one copy each of Smad2 and Smad3

Ye's project involves the characterization of murine embryos which have lost one copy each of Smad2 and Smad3. Many of these embryos exhibit holoprosencephaly, one of the most common birth defects in humans. Others exhibit more severe defects in which the tissues in the embryonic midline are lost or reduced in size, as shown by the loss of Sonic hedgehog staining in the embryonic midline. Others are formed normally, but suffer liver defects later in development that lead to their demise, as illustrated by the lack of HNF-4, a master regulator of liver development. Ye's results suggest that these phenotypes arise from a defect in the endodermal lining of the gut that is formed early in embryogenesis and carries out important patterning activities.