Pre-bilaterian origin of the blastoporal axial organizer
Open accessAbstract
The startling capacity of the amphibian Spemann organizer to induce naïve cells to form a Siamese twin embryo with a second set of body axes is one of the hallmarks of developmental biology. However, the axis-inducing potential of the blastopore-associated tissue is commonly regarded as a chordate feature. Here we show that the blastopore lip of a non-bilaterian metazoan, the anthozoan cnidarian Nematostella vectensis, possesses the same capacity and uses the same molecular mechanism for inducing extra axes as chordates: Wnt/β-catenin signaling. We also demonstrate that the establishment of the secondary, directive axis in Nematostella by BMP signaling is sensitive to an initial Wnt signal, but once established the directive axis becomes Wnt-independent. By combining molecular analysis with experimental embryology, we provide evidence that the emergence of the Wnt/β-catenin driven blastopore-associated axial organizer predated the cnidarian-bilaterian split over 600 million years ago.
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Genome-editing technologies such as TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9 are now available in some cnidarian model systems.
“In addition to well-established transient knockdown strategies (dsRNA, morpholinos), genome-editing technologies like TALENs or CRISPR/Cas9 are now available in some cnidarian model systems [105,106].”
From Back to the Basics: Cnidarians Start to Fire (2017) · cites this paper as [106]
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Back to the Basics: Cnidarians Start to Fire
Bosch, T. C. G., Klimovich, A., Domazet-Lošo, T., Gründer, S., Holstein, T. W., Jékely, G., Miller, D. J., Murillo-Rincon, A. P., Rentzsch, F., Richards, G. S., et al. (2017) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2016.11.005 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Kraus, Y., Aman, A., Technau, U., & Genikhovich, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Corresponding author
- Technau, Ulrich
- Genikhovich, Grigory
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2016-05-27
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 11694-11694
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4895019
- OpenAlex
- W2402308439
- Cited by
- 143
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 6.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Phaidra (Universität Wien) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Austrian Science Fund (P 26962, P22717, M 1140)
- Universität Wien
- Lomonosov Moscow State University
- 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 › Wnt/β-catenin signaling in development and cancer
- Keywords
- Spemann organizer, Nematostella vectensis, Wnt/β-catenin signaling, BMP signaling, chordate evolution, embryonic axis formation
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Base Sequence, Gastrula, Sea Anemones, Mutagenesis, In Situ Hybridization, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Body Patterning, Organizers, Embryonic, beta Catenin, Wnt Signaling Pathway, CRISPR-Cas Systems
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