Inhibitory action of BMPs on Pax1 expression and on shoulder girdle formation during limb development

Pax1 expression in vertebrate limb buds is confined to cells in a discrete anterior proximal domain (Timmons et al. [1994] Development 120:2773-2785; Ebensperger et al. [1995] Anat. Embryol. 191:297-310). In dorsoventral patterning of Drosophila, expression of pox meso, an insect gene with high sequence similarity to Pax1, is repressed by decapentaplegic (dpp) in dorsal mesoderm and, thus, is restricted to a discrete ventral domain (Staehling-Hampton et al. [1994] Nature 372:783-786). In the chick wing, cells expressing a vertebrate homolog of dpp, bone morphogenetic protein 4 (Bmp4), abut the Pax1 domain, suggesting a similar relationship between homologous genes in both vertebrates and invertebrates. Here, we show that two BMPs (BMP4, and BMP2, also highly related to dpp) can repress Pax1 in the developing chick wing. Chick wing bud cells expressing Pax1 give rise to the shoulder girdle. Cells in an equivalent position in the mouse forelimb also express Pax1, and Pax1 mutant mice display shoulder girdle defects. Similarly in chick embryos, girdle defects are produced by treatments with signalling molecules that lead to expression of BMPs, which subsequently reduce Pax1 expression in the limb bud. Recently, BMP4 has been shown to inhibit Pax1 expression in the developing trunk (Monsoro-Burq et al. [1996] Development 122:3607-3616) and Pax9 expression in developing teeth (Neubüser et al. [1997] Cell 90:247-255). Thus, a property of BMPs appears to be to regulate pox meso homologs negatively and, thus, limit their expression domains.