TGF-β signaling pathway in early mouse development and embryonic stem cells

TGF-beta superfamily signaling pathways essentially contribute to the broad spectrum of early developmental events including embryonic patterning, cell fate determination and dynamic movements. In this review, we first introduced some key developmental processes that require TGF-beta signaling to show the fundamental importance of these pathways. Then we discuss how their activities are regulated, and new findings about how the TGF-beta superfamily ligands bind to the chromatin to regulate transcription during embryo development.