Focus group 3 – Neural Induction

 Discussion on the article by Marchal et al.

 General questions (all):

1.      What were the premises to carry out this work?

2.      What are the specific objectives and the experimental paradigms of the current work?

3.      What are the main findings and general conclusions?

à after discussion: what are the markers used in this study and what are the techiniques used to reveal it (draw a table )

 Specific questions:

Group 1

1.     what are the main actors in BMP pathway and what are the main experimental tools used to interfere with BMP signaling?

2.     The authors concluded  that Smad5-sbn acts in a cell autonomous manner, why and what does it means?

3.     Explain and comment Figure 3

Group 2

4.     What is the rationale to investigate the effect of Smad5-sbn on SMAD2?

5.     What is an anti-morphic reagent?

6.     Explain and comment Figure 1 (A-D)

Group 3

7.     What are the results leading to the conclusion that Zic3 and Zic4 act redundantly to promote the neural program?

8.     Do you think  Zic1 and Zic3 can be considered as true neural markers?

9.     Explain and comment Figure 2

Daniele Stajano, Marco Ghibaudi, Viviana Gatti, Mulè Francesca, Zuccarini, DiRenzo, Rossi, Micheloni, Celeste Nicola