 Specifically, Cerberus and GREM3 act as antagonists to Nodal in the anterior region of the developing embryo, blocking its expression and halting the progression of the primitive node.Orthologs of the gene that codes Cerberus (CER1) are conserved in other non-rodent mammals, indicating that Cerberus has similar functions in other vertebrates.A gene knockdown experiment was conducted in Xenopus, where the amount of Cerberus expressed was decreased by inhibiting translation.