Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn di Napoli, Villa Comunale 1, 80121, Napoli, Italy.
Evolutionary Morphology Laboratory, RIKEN, Minatojima-minami 2-2-3, 650-0047, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 16;7(1):8432. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-08157-w.
The development of the mouth in animals has fascinated researchers for decades, and a recent study proposed the modern view of recurrent evolution of protostomy and deuterostomy. Here we expanded our knowledge about conserved traits of mouth formation in chordates, testing the hypothesis that nitric oxide (NO) is a potential regulator of this process. In the present work we show for the first time that NO is an essential cell signaling molecule for cephalochordate mouth formation, as previously shown for vertebrates, indicating its conserved ancestral role in chordates. The experimental decrease of NO during early amphioxus Branchiostoma lanceolatum development impaired the formation of the mouth and gill slits, demonstrating that it is a prerequisite in pharyngeal morphogenesis. Our results represent the first step in the understanding of NO physiology in non-vertebrate chordates, opening new evolutionary perspectives into the ancestral importance of NO homeostasis and acquisition of novel biological roles during evolution.
几十年来，动物口腔的发育一直令研究人员着迷，最近的一项研究提出了原口动物和后口动物反复进化的现代观点。在这里，我们扩展了我们对脊索动物口腔形成的保守特征的认识，检验了一氧化氮（NO）是这一过程的潜在调节剂的假设。在目前的工作中，我们首次表明，NO 是头索动物文昌鱼口腔形成的必需细胞信号分子，正如以前在脊椎动物中所表明的那样，这表明它在脊索动物中具有保守的祖先作用。在早期文昌鱼（Branchiostoma lanceolatum）发育过程中，NO 的实验减少损害了口和鳃裂的形成，表明它是咽形态发生的先决条件。我们的研究结果代表了理解非脊椎动物脊索动物中 NO 生理学的第一步，为 NO 动态平衡的祖先重要性以及在进化过程中获得新的生物学功能提供了新的进化视角。
