Sea Urchin Development Flashcards
what two mechanisms of cell patterning are used in the sea urchin?
- autonomous specification
- conditional specification
why are sea urchins good model organisms?
- they release of large number of gametes, all embryos develop synchronously, embryos are transparent, easy to manipulate genetically, has many gene regulatory networks
what is the sea urchin life cycle?
- first two cell dividisions divde the embryo into 4 equal cells- first two are meridional cleavage, the third in the equatorial.
- then form 8 cell stage
- the fourth cleavage is different: the next division forms 2 smaller micrometers in the vegetal pole and 4 micromeres in the vegetal half. the top 8 cells are the mesmerise.
- the embryo is eventually divided into animal 1,2 and vegetal 1,2
- after cleavage the blastula forms which has a blostoceol
- the micrometers become the PMC and ingress within the cell, triggering gastrulation
- the cells at the vegetal pole form a blastopore
- the secondary mesoderm cells then ingress and protrude filapodia which pull the Archenteron towards the mouth end.
- the PMC form the skeletal extensions
- then the prism stage occurs
- then 6-8 weeks undergoes metamorphosis
how long can sea urchins live?
200 years
what forms around the embryo after fertilisation?
the fertilisation membrane
what are the micromeres?
4 small cells that form at the bottom of the vegetal pole- become the PMC
where are the mesomeres, macromeres and micromeres?
the mesmerise are found in the animal pole
- the micromeres are in the vegetal pole at the bottom
- the macromeres are found in the vegetal pole
how do the micromeres ingress?
they undergo an epithelial to mesenhymal change- the cells lose affinity for their hyaline layer and produce proteins which allows them to migrate into the blastoceol and lose their cilium.- they first pop their nuclei into the blastocoel then fully enter
on what side of the embryo does the mouth open?
oral not aboral
what will the animal 1 area of the embryo go on to form?
the apical organ, oral aboral ectoderm and ciliated bands
what will the animal 2 area of the embryo go on to form?
the oral aboral ectoderm and the ciliated bands
what will the veg 1 area form?
hindgut and endoderm
what will the veg 2 area form?
the endoderm and non-skeletal mesoderm
what do the micromeres form?
the PMC and coleomic pouches
how are the micromeres specified and what does this mean?
they are autonomously specified, this means that they don’t need signals from surrounding cells for the specification and instead depend on cytoplasmic, internal signals
what do the micromeres specify?
the endomesoderm
what is the key component of autonomous specification in the vegetal cells?
the nuclearisation of beta catenin
what studies have shown that the nuclearisation of beta catenin causes the formation of vegetal cells?
if you induce nuclearisation in all cells of the embryo then all the cells become vegitalised
what is the pathway by which beta catenin is vegetalised?
it requires WNT, when WNT binds to a dishevelled protein it activates frizzled protein, this prevents the degredation of beta catenin and allows it to enter the nucleus- without wnt, b-cat is degraded
how are the micromeres autonomously specified?
the egg contains localised factors that are essential for triggering the specification- this is the dishevelled protein which becomes localised at the vegetal pole during oogenesis
what is the role of disheveled in the vegetal pole during cleavage ?
it prevents the degradation of b- catenin that occurs without the wnt pathway- it can go into the nucleus
where does beta catenin occur in the nucleus in the developing embryo-
predominately in the micromeres but also in the veg 2 regions
what shows that micromeres are autonomously specified?
when grown alone, they form th same skeletal mesodermal fate
what experiments show the role of beta catenin in the embryo in determining cell fate?
treating a cell with lithium chloride causes the accumulation of beta- catenin in every cell and transforms the presumptive ectoderm into endoderm.
- inhibition of accumulation of beta catenin in the vegetal cells prevents the formation of endoderm and mesoderm
what does treating an embryo with lithium chloride do
cause the accumulation of beta- catenin in every cell and transforms the ectoderm into endoderm
when does otx become localised in the micromeres?
during the fourth cleavage
what is otx?
a maternal transcription factor that becomes localised in the fourth cleavage
what is the role of otx?
it interacts with the b-catenin/TCF transcription factor binding and interacts with the enhancer of Pmar1 gene to activate the transcription of this gene in the micromeres
what is Pmar1?
a transcriptional repressor of HesC, a gene that encodes another repressive transcription factor
what is HesC?
a gene that encodes for a repressive transcription factor that represses the expression of delta
what is the action of Pmar1 repressing the pressing function of HesC?
a double negative gate
what is the result of a double negative gate?
inhibits the expression of a gene in every cell other than where its repressor is
what are the genes repressed by HesC involved in?
micromere specification- Alx1, Ets1, Tbr, Tel and SoxC
what are the genes that are involved in micrometer patterning but are repressed by HesC?
Alx1, Ets1, Tbr, Tel and SoxC
the genes that encode for micromere regulation are Alx1, Ets1, Tbr, Tel and SoxC. how can they be expressed normally and what occurs in the presence of HesC?
these genes can normally be expressed by ubiquitous transcription factors, however when HesC is being expressed, they can’t be. thus when Pmar1 represses HesC, these ubiquitous transcription factors can have an effect
what signalling proteins are under the control of HesC and why is this significant?
HesC represses delta which is involved in the specification of non skeletal mesoderm cells. In the micromeres, HesC is repressed so delta can be expressed and interact with the surrounding cells that express delta- patterning them as NSM- veg 2 cells.
what is the feedforward mechanism seen in the micromere regulatory genes and why is it needed?
it is needed because the expression of Pmar1 is transient, but the genes that it regulates need to be able to promote their own expression.
describe a positive feedback loop seen in the micromere regulatory genes? what is the step after this?
eats activates Erg, Hex and Tgif erg activates Hex and Tgif
Tgif activates hez and itself
Hex activates Erg … these activate differentiation genes
what is important about activation transcription factors in micromeres in terms of only expression genes when needed?
each differentiation gene must be activated by multiple differentiation genes
Considering that the micromeres require beta catenin for their regulatory pathway, how do they ensure that there is a constant supply of WNT8?
as soon as the micromeres form. b-catenin and otx activate Blimp1 genes, this activates the gene encoding WNT8. this means that WNT8 can continue to facilitate beta catenin in the nucleus and therefore its own expression