Cited by 166Developmental Biology and Gene RegulationMarine Invertebrate Physiology and EcologyPlanarian Biology and Electrostimulation

Analysis of forkhead and snail expression reveals epithelial–mesenchymal transitions during embryonic and larval development of Nematostella vectensis

Open access
Fritzenwanker, Jens H., Saina, Michael, Technau, Ulrich·2004·Developmental Biology

Abstract

The winged helix transcription factor Forkhead and the zinc finger transcription factor Snail are crucially involved in germ layer formation in Bilateria. Here, we isolated and characterized a homolog of forkhead/HNF3 (FoxA/group 1) and of snail from a diploblast, the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. We show that Nematostella forkhead expression starts during late Blastula stage in a ring of cells that demarcate the blastopore margin during early gastrulation, thereby marking the boundary between ectodermal and endodermal tissue. snail, by contrast, is expressed in a complementary pattern in the center of forkhead-expressing cells marking the presumptive endodermal cells fated to ingress during gastrulation. In a significant portion of early gastrulating embryos, forkhead is expressed asymmetrically around the blastopore. While snail-expressing cells form the endodermal cell mass, forkhead marks the pharynx anlage throughout embryonic and larval development. In the primary polyp, forkhead remains expressed in the pharynx. The detailed analysis of forkhead and snail expression during Nematostella embryonic and larval development further suggests that endoderm formation results from epithelial invagination, mesenchymal immigration, and reorganization of the endodermal epithelial layer, that is, by epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMT) in combination with extensive morphogenetic movements. snail also governs EMT at different processes during embryonic development in Bilateria. Our data indicate that the function of snail in Diploblasts is to regulate motility and cell adhesion, supporting that the triggering of changes in cell behavior is the ancestral role of snail in Metazoa.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.ydbio.2004.08.014

Cites

77 of 77 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Fox gene expression in Nematostella and Hydra suggests that the mucociliary epithelium around the gastric opening represents the ancient site of activity of the foxA, B, C, D, E superfamily.

    “in Nematostella, foxB [122] and foxA [123] are expressed in the ectodermal ciliated pharynx and foxC [122] in pharyngeal endoderm; in Hydra, foxA/budhead [124] is likewise expressed in the endoderm around the oral opening, suggesting that the mucociliary epithelium around the gastric opening represents the ancient site of activity of the foxA, B, C, D, E superfamily.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 79 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Fritzenwanker, J. H., Saina, M., & Technau, U.
Affiliations
Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE)
Corresponding author
Technau, Ulrich
Venue
Developmental Biology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2004-11
Volume
275
Issue
2
Pages
389-402
ISSN
0012-1606 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2084448229
Cited by
165
References
79
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 2
FWCI
5.09
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Developmental Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Planarian Biology and Electrostimulation
Keywords
forkhead transcription factor, Snail transcription factor, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, Nematostella vectensis, sea anemone, gastrulation, endoderm formation, blastopore, larval development, cell motility, cell adhesion, germ layer formation, morphogenetic movements
MeSH terms
Snail Family Transcription Factors, Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Cell Differentiation, DNA-Binding Proteins, Epithelial Cells, Mesoderm, Models, Genetic, Molecular Sequence Data, Nuclear Proteins, Phylogeny, Sea Anemones, Transcription Factors, Likelihood Functions, Sequence Alignment, In Situ Hybridization, Sequence Analysis, DNA, DNA Primers, DNA, Complementary, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, Forkhead Transcription Factors

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review