Axial patterning in cephalochordates and the evolution of the organizer

Jr-Kai Yu, Yutaka Satou, Nicholas D. Holland, Tadasu Shin-I, Yuji Kohara, Noriyuki Satoh, Marianne Bronner-Fraser and Linda Z. Holland ()
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Jr-Kai Yu: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Yutaka Satou: Kyoto University
Nicholas D. Holland: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Tadasu Shin-I: National Institute of Genetics
Yuji Kohara: National Institute of Genetics
Noriyuki Satoh: Kyoto University
Marianne Bronner-Fraser: California Institute of Technology
Linda Z. Holland: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Nature, 2007, vol. 445, issue 7128, 613-617

Abstract: Abstract The organizer of the vertebrate gastrula is an important signalling centre that induces and patterns dorsal axial structures. Although a topic of long-standing interest, the evolutionary origin of the organizer remains unclear. Here we show that the gastrula of the cephalochordate amphioxus expresses dorsal/ventral (D/V) patterning genes (for example, bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), Nodal and their antagonists) in patterns reminiscent of those of their vertebrate orthlogues, and that amphioxus embryos, like those of vertebrates, are ventralized by exogenous BMP protein. In addition, Wnt-antagonists (for example, Dkks and sFRP2-like) are expressed anteriorly, whereas Wnt genes themselves are expressed posteriorly, consistent with a role for Wnt signalling in anterior/posterior (A/P) patterning. These results suggest evolutionary conservation of the mechanisms for both D/V and A/P patterning of the early gastrula. In light of recent phylogenetic analyses placing cephalochordates basally in the chordate lineage, we propose that separate signalling centres for patterning the D/V and A/P axes may be an ancestral chordate character.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05472

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