Babonis Leslie S, Martindale Mark Q
Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, 9505 Ocean Shore Blvd, St. Augustine, FL 32080 USA.
Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA.
Evodevo. 2017 Sep 4;8:14. doi: 10.1186/s13227-017-0077-7. eCollection 2017.
genes are a family of conserved transcription factors that regulate many aspects of developmental morphogenesis, notably the development of ectodermal sensory structures including eyes. , the starlet sea anemone, has numerous orthologs, many of which are expressed early during embryogenesis. The function of genes in this eyeless cnidarian is unknown.
Here, we show that , but not , plays a critical role in the development of cnidocytes in . Knockdown of results in a loss of developing cnidocytes and downregulation of numerous cnidocyte-specific genes, including a variant of the transcription factor . We also demonstrate that the co-expression of in a subset of the -expressing cells is associated with the development with a second lineage of cnidocytes and show that knockdown of the neural progenitor gene results in downregulation of expression of , , and several cnidocyte-specific genes. Because is not co-expressed with at any time during cnidocyte development, we propose a simple model for cnidogenesis whereby a -expressing progenitor cell population undergoes division to give rise to -expressing cnidocytes, some of which also express .
The role of in cnidocyte development among hydrozoans has not been studied, but the conserved role of in regulating the fate of a progenitor cell that gives rise to neurons and cnidocytes in and suggests that this / pathway may well be conserved across cnidarians.
基因是一类保守的转录因子家族，可调节发育形态发生的许多方面，尤其是外胚层感觉结构（包括眼睛）的发育。星状海葵有许多直系同源基因，其中许多在胚胎发生早期就已表达。这些基因在这种无眼刺胞动物中的功能尚不清楚。
在这里，我们表明，在星状海葵刺细胞的发育中起关键作用，而则不起作用。敲低会导致发育中的刺细胞丢失以及许多刺细胞特异性基因的下调，包括转录因子的一个变体。我们还证明，在一部分表达的细胞中共表达与第二种刺细胞谱系的发育相关，并表明敲低神经祖细胞基因会导致、和几个刺细胞特异性基因的表达下调。由于在刺细胞发育的任何时候都不与共表达，我们提出了一个简单的刺细胞发生模型，即表达的祖细胞群体进行分裂，产生表达的刺细胞，其中一些也表达。
尚未研究在水螅纲动物刺细胞发育中的作用，但在调节产生神经元和刺细胞的祖细胞命运方面的保守作用表明，这种/途径很可能在整个刺胞动物中都是保守的。
