Transcriptional regulation of mesendoderm formation in Xenopus

Mesoderm and endoderm formation in Xenopus involves the coordinated efforts of maternally and zygotically expressed transcription factors together with growth factor signalling, including members of the TGFβ and wnt families. In this review we discuss our current state of knowledge of these pathways, and describe in more detail some of the transcription factor-DNA interactions that are involved in mesendoderm formation.