Xenopus flotillin1, a novel gene highly expressed in the dorsal nervous system

The two paralogues of the Xenopus flotillin1 gene (flotillin1A and flotillin1B), which encodes a putative membrane-associated protein, were cloned from egg, cleavage, and tadpole cDNA libraries. Both mRNAs are present during oogenesis and cleavage stages. After the onset of zygotic transcription, flotillin1 transcripts are first expressed throughout the embryonic ectoderm and become enhanced in the presumptive neural ectoderm as the neural plate forms. As the neural tube forms and differentiates, flotillin1 transcripts become enriched in the dorsal half, with particularly high expression in dorsal primary neurons. At early tail bud stages, there is additional expression in the paraxial mesoderm. At late tail bud stages, flotillin1A is expressed in branchial arch mesenchyme, the overlying branchial ectoderm and in dorsal somitic mesoderm, whereas flotillin1B expression is more restricted in the dorsal neural tube and head sensory structures. This report is the first comprehensive developmental description in any animal of the expression pattern of this gene, whose protein product in several systems plays important roles in signal transduction events.