Click
here to close Hello! We notice that
you are using Internet Explorer, which is not supported by Echinobase
and may cause the site to display incorrectly. We suggest using a
current version of Chrome,
FireFox,
or Safari.
Development
2011 Mar 01;1385:959-70. doi: 10.1242/dev.059493.
Show Gene links
Show Anatomy links
β-catenin specifies the endomesoderm and defines the posterior organizer of the hemichordate Saccoglossus kowalevskii.
Darras S
,
Gerhart J
,
Terasaki M
,
Kirschner M
,
Lowe CJ
.
???displayArticle.abstract???
The canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway is a key regulator of body plan organization and axis formation in metazoans, being involved in germ layer specification, posterior growth and patterning of the anteroposterior axis. Results from animals spanning a wide phylogenetic range suggest that a unifying function of β-catenin in metazoans is to define the posterior/vegetal part of the embryo. Although the specification of vegetal territories (endoderm) by β-catenin has been demonstrated in distantly related animals (cnidarians, a protostome, echinoderms and ascidians), the definition of the posterior part of the embryo is well supported only for vertebrates and planarians. To gain insights into β-catenin functions during deuterostome evolution, we have studied the early development of the direct developing hemichordate Saccoglossus kowalevskii. We show that the zygote is polarized after fertilization along the animal-vegetal axis by cytoplasmic rearrangements resembling the ascidian vegetal contraction. This early asymmetry is translated into nuclear accumulation of β-catenin at the vegetal pole, which is necessary and sufficient to specify endomesoderm. We show that endomesoderm specification is crucial for anteroposterior axis establishment in the ectoderm. The endomesoderm secretes as yet unidentified signals that posteriorize the ectoderm, which would otherwise adopt an anterior fate. Our results point to a conserved function at the base of deuterostomes for β-catenin in germ layer specification and to a causal link in the definition of the posterior part of the embryonic ectoderm by way of activating posteriorizing endomesodermal factors. Consequently, the definition of the vegetal and the posterior regions of the embryo by β-catenin should be distinguished and carefully re-examined.
Angerer,
Patterning the sea urchin embryo: gene regulatory networks, signaling pathways, and cellular interactions.
2003, Pubmed,
Echinobase
Angerer,
Patterning the sea urchin embryo: gene regulatory networks, signaling pathways, and cellular interactions.
2003,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Aronowicz,
Hox gene expression in the hemichordate Saccoglossus kowalevskii and the evolution of deuterostome nervous systems.
2006,
Pubmed
Broun,
Formation of the head organizer in hydra involves the canonical Wnt pathway.
2005,
Pubmed
Croce,
The canonical Wnt pathway in embryonic axis polarity.
2006,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Davidson,
A genomic regulatory network for development.
2002,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
De Robertis,
The establishment of Spemann's organizer and patterning of the vertebrate embryo.
2000,
Pubmed
Freeman,
cDNA sequences for transcription factors and signaling proteins of the hemichordate Saccoglossus kowalevskii: efficacy of the expressed sequence tag (EST) approach for evolutionary and developmental studies of a new organism.
2008,
Pubmed
Gonsalves,
Function of the wingless signaling pathway in Drosophila.
2008,
Pubmed
Guder,
The Wnt code: cnidarians signal the way.
2006,
Pubmed
Guder,
An ancient Wnt-Dickkopf antagonism in Hydra.
2006,
Pubmed
Gurley,
Beta-catenin defines head versus tail identity during planarian regeneration and homeostasis.
2008,
Pubmed
Henry,
Beta-catenin is required for the establishment of vegetal embryonic fates in the nemertean, Cerebratulus lacteus.
2008,
Pubmed
Hinman,
Developmental gene regulatory network architecture across 500 million years of echinoderm evolution.
2003,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Hobmayer,
WNT signalling molecules act in axis formation in the diploblastic metazoan Hydra.
2000,
Pubmed
Holland,
Heads or tails? Amphioxus and the evolution of anterior-posterior patterning in deuterostomes.
2002,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Holland,
Nuclear beta-catenin promotes non-neural ectoderm and posterior cell fates in amphioxus embryos.
2005,
Pubmed
Iglesias,
Silencing of Smed-betacatenin1 generates radial-like hypercephalized planarians.
2008,
Pubmed
Imai,
(beta)-catenin mediates the specification of endoderm cells in ascidian embryos.
2000,
Pubmed
Kawai,
Nuclear accumulation of beta-catenin and transcription of downstream genes are regulated by zygotic Wnt5alpha and maternal Dsh in ascidian embryos.
2007,
Pubmed
Kumano,
Ascidian embryonic development: an emerging model system for the study of cell fate specification in chordates.
2007,
Pubmed
Kunick,
1-Azakenpaullone is a selective inhibitor of glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta.
2004,
Pubmed
Kusserow,
Unexpected complexity of the Wnt gene family in a sea anemone.
2005,
Pubmed
Lengfeld,
Multiple Wnts are involved in Hydra organizer formation and regeneration.
2009,
Pubmed
Logan,
Nuclear beta-catenin is required to specify vegetal cell fates in the sea urchin embryo.
1999,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Lowe,
Anteroposterior patterning in hemichordates and the origins of the chordate nervous system.
2003,
Pubmed
Lowe,
Hemichordate embryos: procurement, culture, and basic methods.
2004,
Pubmed
Lowe,
Dorsoventral patterning in hemichordates: insights into early chordate evolution.
2006,
Pubmed
Manuel,
Early evolution of symmetry and polarity in metazoan body plans.
2009,
Pubmed
Marikawa,
Wnt/beta-catenin signaling and body plan formation in mouse embryos.
2006,
Pubmed
Martin,
Wnt signaling and the evolution of embryonic posterior development.
2009,
Pubmed
Martindale,
A developmental perspective: changes in the position of the blastopore during bilaterian evolution.
2009,
Pubmed
Miyawaki,
Nuclear localization of beta-catenin in vegetal pole cells during early embryogenesis of the starfish Asterina pectinifera.
2003,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Mizumoto,
Two betas or not two betas: regulation of asymmetric division by beta-catenin.
2007,
Pubmed
Momose,
Two oppositely localised frizzled RNAs as axis determinants in a cnidarian embryo.
2007,
Pubmed
Momose,
A maternally localised Wnt ligand required for axial patterning in the cnidarian Clytia hemisphaerica.
2008,
Pubmed
Nagai,
A variant of yellow fluorescent protein with fast and efficient maturation for cell-biological applications.
2002,
Pubmed
Niehrs,
On growth and form: a Cartesian coordinate system of Wnt and BMP signaling specifies bilaterian body axes.
2010,
Pubmed
Nishida,
Specification of embryonic axis and mosaic development in ascidians.
2005,
Pubmed
Petersen,
Smed-betacatenin-1 is required for anteroposterior blastema polarity in planarian regeneration.
2008,
Pubmed
Petersen,
Wnt signaling and the polarity of the primary body axis.
2009,
Pubmed
Primus,
The cnidarian and the canon: the role of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in the evolution of metazoan embryos.
2004,
Pubmed
Primus,
Evolution and development: Wnts in deep time.
2005,
Pubmed
Ryan,
Hox, Wnt, and the evolution of the primary body axis: insights from the early-divergent phyla.
2007,
Pubmed
Schneider,
beta-Catenin asymmetries after all animal/vegetal- oriented cell divisions in Platynereis dumerilii embryos mediate binary cell-fate specification.
2007,
Pubmed
Shen,
Nodal signaling: developmental roles and regulation.
2007,
Pubmed
Tao,
Maternal wnt11 activates the canonical wnt signaling pathway required for axis formation in Xenopus embryos.
2005,
Pubmed
Wei,
The sea urchin animal pole domain is a Six3-dependent neurogenic patterning center.
2009,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Weitzel,
Differential stability of beta-catenin along the animal-vegetal axis of the sea urchin embryo mediated by dishevelled.
2004,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Wikramanayake,
beta-Catenin is essential for patterning the maternally specified animal-vegetal axis in the sea urchin embryo.
1998,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Wikramanayake,
An ancient role for nuclear beta-catenin in the evolution of axial polarity and germ layer segregation.
2003,
Pubmed
Yaguchi,
Specification of ectoderm restricts the size of the animal plate and patterns neurogenesis in sea urchin embryos.
2006,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Yamaguchi,
Heads or tails: Wnts and anterior-posterior patterning.
2001,
Pubmed
Yasui,
beta-Catenin in early development of the lancelet embryo indicates specific determination of embryonic polarity.
2002,
Pubmed