A Clonal Analysis of Secondary Mesenchyme Cell Fates in the Sea Urchin Embryo

1993 ◽  
Vol 160 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth W. Ruffins ◽  
Charles A. Ettensohn
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Clonal Analysis ◽  
Cell Fates ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryo ◽  
Mesenchyme Cell

Cell interactions and mesodermal cell fates in the sea urchin embryo

Development ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 116 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. 43-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Ettensohn
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Cell Interactions ◽  
Cell Labeling ◽  
Cell Fates ◽  
Mesodermal Cell ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryo ◽  
Present Information ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Mesenchyme Cells

Cell interactions during gastrulation play a key role in the determination of mesodermal cell fates in the sea urchin embryo. An interaction between primary and secondary mesenchyme cells (PMCs and SMCs, respectively), the two principal populations of mesodermal cells, regulates the expression of SMC fates. PMCs are committed early in cleavage to express a skeletogenic phenotype. During gastrulation, they transmit a signal that suppresses the skeletogenic potential of a subpopulation of SMCs and directs these cells into an alternative developmental pathway. This review summarizes present information concerning the cellular basis of the PMC-SMC interaction, as analyzed by cell transplantation and ablation experiments, fluorescent cell labeling methods and the use of cell type-specific molecular markers. The nature and stability of SMC fate switching, the timing of the PMC-SMC interaction and its quantitative characteristics, and the lineage, numbers and normal fate of the population of skeletogenic SMCs are discussed. Evidence is presented indicating that PMCs and SMCs come into direct filopodial contact during the late gastrula stage, when the signal is transmitted. Finally, evolutionary questions raised by these studies are briefly addressed.

scholarly journals Dynamics of thin filopodia during sea urchin gastrulation

Development ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 121 (8) ◽  
pp. 2501-2511 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Miller ◽  
S.E. Fraser ◽  
D. McClay
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Positional Information ◽  
Cell Interactions ◽  
Average Growth ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryo ◽  
Ligand Interactions ◽  
Patterning Defect ◽  
Mesenchyme Cell ◽  
Mesenchyme Cells ◽  
Primary Mesenchyme Cells

At gastrulation in the sea urchin embryo, a dramatic rearrangement of cells establishes the three germ layers of the organism. Experiments have revealed a number of cell interactions at this stage that transfer patterning information from cell to cell. Of particular significance, primary mesenchyme cells, which are responsible for production of the embryonic skeleton, have been shown to obtain extensive positional information from the embryonic ectoderm. In the present study, high resolution Nomarski imaging reveals the presence of very thin filopodia (02-0.4 micron in diameter) extending from primary mesenchyme cells as well as from ectodermal and secondary mesenchyme cells. These thin filopodia sometimes extend to more than 80 microns in length and show average growth and retraction rates of nearly 10 microns/minute. The filopodia are highly dynamic, rapidly changing from extension to resorption; frequently, the resorption changes to resumption of assembly. The behavior, location and timing of active thin filopodial movements does not correlate with cell locomotion; instead, there is a strong correlation suggesting their involvement in cell-cell interactions associated with signaling and patterning at gastrulation. Nickel-treatment, which is known to create a patterning defect in skeletogenesis due to alterations in the ectoderm, alters the normal position-dependent differences in the thin filopodia. The effect is present in recombinant embryos in which the ectoderm alone was treated with nickel, and is absent in recombinant embryos in which only the primary mesenchyme cells were treated, suggesting that the filopodial length is substratum dependent rather than being primary mesenchyme cell autonomous. The thin filopodia provide a means by which cells can contact others several cell diameters away, suggesting that some of the signaling previously thought to be mediated by diffusible signals may instead by the result of direct receptor-ligand interactions between cell membranes.

scholarly journals β-Catenin is essential for patterning the maternally specified animal-vegetal axis in the sea urchin embryo

1998 ◽  
Vol 95 (16) ◽  
pp. 9343-9348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athula H. Wikramanayake ◽  
Ling Huang ◽  
William H. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Early Embryo ◽  
Cell Fates ◽  
Cell Stage ◽  
Signal Transduction Cascade ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryos ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryo ◽  
Vegetal Pole ◽  
Vegetal Cell

In sea urchin embryos, the animal-vegetal axis is specified during oogenesis. After fertilization, this axis is patterned to produce five distinct territories by the 60-cell stage. Territorial specification is thought to occur by a signal transduction cascade that is initiated by the large micromeres located at the vegetal pole. The molecular mechanisms that mediate the specification events along the animal–vegetal axis in sea urchin embryos are largely unknown. Nuclear β-catenin is seen in vegetal cells of the early embryo, suggesting that this protein plays a role in specifying vegetal cell fates. Here, we test this hypothesis and show that β-catenin is necessary for vegetal plate specification and is also sufficient for endoderm formation. In addition, we show that β-catenin has pronounced effects on animal blastomeres and is critical for specification of aboral ectoderm and for ectoderm patterning, presumably via a noncell-autonomous mechanism. These results support a model in which a Wnt-like signal released by vegetal cells patterns the early embryo along the animal–vegetal axis. Our results also reveal similarities between the sea urchin animal–vegetal axis and the vertebrate dorsal–ventral axis, suggesting that these axes share a common evolutionary origin.

Manipulating cell fates in the sea urchin embryo

1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 21-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLIAM H. KLEIN ◽  
CHAI-AN MAO ◽  
LIN GAN ◽  
CHIN-KAI CHUANG ◽  
ATHULA H. WIKRAMANAYAKE
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Cell Fates ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryo

The allocation of early blastomeres to the ectoderm and endoderm is variable in the sea urchin embryo

Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (11) ◽  
pp. 2213-2223 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.Y. Logan ◽  
D.R. McClay
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Initial Step ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Lytechinus Variegatus ◽  
Cell Fates ◽  
Cell Stage ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryo

During sea urchin development, a tier-to-tier progression of cell signaling events is thought to segregate the early blastomeres to five different cell lineages by the 60-cell stage (E. H. Davidson, 1989, Development 105, 421–445). For example, the sixth equatorial cleavage produces two tiers of sister cells called ‘veg1′ and ‘veg2,’ which were projected by early studies to be allocated to the ectoderm and endoderm, respectively. Recent in vitro studies have proposed that the segregation of veg1 and veg2 cells to distinct fates involves signaling between the veg1 and veg2 tiers (O. Khaner and F. Wilt, 1991, Development 112, 881–890). However, fate-mapping studies on 60-cell stage embryos have not been performed with modern lineage tracers, and cell interactions between veg1 and veg2 cells have not been shown in vivo. Therefore, as an initial step towards examining how archenteron precursors are specified, a clonal analysis of veg1 and veg2 cells was performed using the lipophilic dye, DiI(C16), in the sea urchin species, Lytechinus variegatus. Both veg1 and veg2 descendants form archenteron tissues, revealing that the ectoderm and endoderm are not segregated at the sixth cleavage. Also, this division does not demarcate cell type boundaries within the endoderm, because both veg1 and veg2 descendants make an overlapping range of endodermal cell types. The allocation of veg1 cells to ectoderm and endoderm during cleavage is variable, as revealed by both the failure of veg1 descendants labeled at the eighth equatorial division to segregate predictably to either tissue and the large differences in the numbers of veg1 descendants that contribute to the ectoderm. Furthermore, DiI-labeled mesomeres of 32-cell stage embryos also contribute to the endoderm at a low frequency. These results show that the prospective archenteron is produced by a larger population of cleavage-stage blastomeres than believed previously. The segregation of veg1 cells to the ectoderm and endoderm occurs relatively late during development and is unpredictable, indicating that later cell position is more important than the early cleavage pattern in determining ectodermal and archenteron cell fates.

scholarly journals Cdc42 controls primary mesenchyme cell morphogenesis in the sea urchin embryo

2018 ◽  
Vol 437 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia P. Sepúlveda-Ramírez ◽  
Leslie Toledo-Jacobo ◽  
John H. Henson ◽  
Charles B. Shuster
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Cell Morphogenesis ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryo ◽  
Mesenchyme Cell

scholarly journals HpEts, an ets-related transcription factor implicated in primary mesenchyme cell differentiation in the sea urchin embryo

1999 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisuke Kurokawa ◽  
Takashi Kitajima ◽  
Keiko Mitsunaga-Nakatsubo ◽  
Shonan Amemiya ◽  
Hiraku Shimada ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transcription Factor ◽  
Cell Differentiation ◽  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryo ◽  
Mesenchyme Cell ◽  
Related Transcription Factor
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