Smad10 is required for formation of the frog nervous system

Before the nervous system establishes its complex array of cell types and connections, multipotent cells are instructed to adopt a neural fate and an anterior-posterior pattern is established. In this report, we show that Smad10, a member of the Smad family of intracellular transducers of TGFbeta signaling, is required for formation of the nervous system. In addition, two types of molecules proposed as key to neural induction and patterning, bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) antagonists and fibroblast growth factor (FGF), require Smad10 for these activities. These data suggest that Smad10 may be a central mediator of the development of the frog nervous system.