The origin and continuous replacement of epidermal cells in the planarian Polycelis tenuis (Iijima)

Development ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-139
Author(s):  
R. J. Skaer

Raylankester (1873) coined the term ‘Triploblastic’ and supposed that the gut, parenchyma and epidermis of Turbellaria corresponded to the germ layers of contemporary dogma. This idea is still current, though neither the origin, nor the maintenance of the epidermis of planarians has been investigated in detail. Most embryological studies have been restricted to early development, but Bardeen (1902) worked on embryos of a wide range of ages and claimed that their epidermal cells divide amitotically. Both Mattiesen (1904) and Fulińsky (1916), however, denied that cell division occurs there, and since this has been confirmed for the epidermis of the adult (Skaer, 1961), the cells must be recruited from elsewhere. I suggested that the entire epidermis might be continuously renewed by migration of cells from the parenchyma to the periphery. The idea that cells from the parenchyma might enter the epidermis has been put forward several times. Hallez (1887) described motile cells, equivalent to neoblasts, that enter the epidermis throughout development.

Development ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. 1137-1150 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Reuter ◽  
M. Leptin

Two zygotic genes, snail (sna) and twist (twi), are required for mesoderm development, which begins with the formation of the ventral furrow. Both twi and sna are expressed ventrally in the blastoderm, encode transcription factors and promote the invagination of the ventral furrow by activating or repressing appropriate target genes. However, sna and twi alone do not define the position of the ventral furrow, since they are also expressed in ventral cells that do not invaginate. We show that huckebein (hkb) sets the anterior and the posterior borders of the ventral furrow, but acts by different modes of regulation. In the posterior part of the blastoderm, hkb represses the expression of sna in the endodermal primordium (which we suggest to be adjacent to the mesodermal primordium). In the anterior part, hkb antagonizes the activation of target genes by twi and sna. Here, bicoid permits the co-expression of hkb, sna and twi, which are all required for the development of the anterior digestive tract. We suggest that mesodermal fate is determined where sna and twi but not hkb are expressed. Anteriorly hkb together with sna determines endodermal fate, and hkb together with sna and twi are required for foregut development.


1984 ◽  
Vol 246 (1) ◽  
pp. C154-C156 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. Zieve

Nocodazole, a rapidly reversible inhibitor of microtubule assembly is useful for preparing mammalian cells synchronized at all stages of mitosis. When synchronized cells are allowed to progress through mitosis in the presence of cytochalasin D, the cleavage furrow is inhibited and dikaryon cells are formed. These cells become homogeneous populations of stable mononuclear tetraploid cells after the following cell division. This procedure is applicable to a wide range of mammalian cells in culture.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra M Hernandez ◽  
Joseph F Ryan

Horizontal gene transfer has had major impacts on the biology of a wide range of organisms from antibiotic resistance in bacteria to adaptations to herbivory in arthropods. A growing body of literature shows that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) between non-animals and animals is more commonplace than previously thought. In this study, we present a thorough investigation of HGT in the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi. We applied tests of phylogenetic incongruence to identify nine genes that were likely transferred horizontally early in ctenophore evolution from bacteria and non-metazoan eukaryotes. All but one of these HGTs (an uncharacterized protein) appear to perform enzymatic activities in M. leidyi, supporting previous observations that enzymes are more likely to be retained after HGT events. We found that the majority of these nine horizontally transferred genes were expressed during early development, suggesting that they are active and play a role in the biology of M. leidyi. This is the first report of HGT in ctenophores, and contributes to an ever-growing literature on the prevalence of genetic information flowing between non-animals and animals.


Development ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 1357-1364 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Carmena ◽  
C. Gonzalez ◽  
J. Casal ◽  
P. Ripoll

Most mitotic mutants in Drosophila do not lead to lethality in early development despite the highly abnormal chromosome behaviour that they elicit. This has been explained as being the effect of maternally provided wild-type products. We have tested this hypothesis by studying cuticular clones derived from cells in which there has been loss of a marked Y chromosome due to chromosome nondisjunction in individuals homozygous for the mutation abnormal spindle who are progeny of heterozygous mothers. We have found that the size and frequency of these clones are higher than in control flies. Furthermore, by analysing flies whose female parents have different doses of the asp+ gene, we have found that there is a correlation between the amount of maternally contributed asp+ product and the frequency and size of cuticular clones. We have also estimated the time in development when the first mitotic mistakes take place, i.e. the time when maternal products are no longer sufficient to carry out normal cell division.


Development ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-150
Author(s):  
N. N. Rott ◽  
G. A. Sheveleva

The period of development preceding gastrulation can be divided into two stages. The first is characterized by rapid synchronous cell division. True interphase, which is characterized by the fusion of karyomers and the occurrence of a nucleolus, is absent at this stage. During the second stage the rate of cell division decreases and divisions are asynchronous. The process of cell division is antagonistic to genetic activity of nuclei, as nuclear synthesis of m-RNA appears to cease during mitosis. Consequently, one can suggest that the increase of the length of interphase is necessary for the onset of morphogenetic nuclear function, which ensures gastrulation and subsequent development (Neyfakh, 1959). The present investigation was designed first to determine exactly the time of the appearance of the changes in the rate of cell division and to compare it with the time of onset of morphogenetic nuclear function.


Author(s):  
Jun Ka ◽  
Jun-Dae Kim ◽  
Boryeong Pak ◽  
Orjin Han ◽  
Woosoung Choi ◽  
...  

Unpaired fins, which are the most ancient form of locomotory appendages in chordates, had emerged at least 500 million years ago. While it has been suggested that unpaired fins and paired fins share structural similarities, cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate the outgrowth of the former have not been fully elucidated yet. Using the ventral fin fold in zebrafish as a model, here, we investigate how the outgrowth of the unpaired fin is modulated. We show that Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signaling restricts extension of the ventral fin fold along the proximodistal axis by modulating diverse aspects of cellular behaviors. We find that lack of BMP signaling, either caused by genetic or chemical manipulation, prolongs the proliferative capacity of epithelial cells and substantially increases the number of cells within the ventral fin fold. In addition, inhibition of BMP signaling attenuates the innate propensity of cell division along the anteroposterior axis and shifts the orientation of cell division toward the proximodistal axis. Moreover, abrogating BMP signaling appears to induce excessive distal migration of cells within the ventral fin fold, and therefore precipitates extension along the proximodistal axis. Taken together, our data suggest that BMP signaling restricts the outgrowth of the ventral fin fold during zebrafish development.


1978 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elio Parisi ◽  
Silvana Filosa ◽  
Benita De Petrocellis ◽  
Alberto Monroy

2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (8) ◽  
pp. 2439-2444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuya Mori ◽  
Carl Hirschie Johnson

ABSTRACT In the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus, cell division is regulated by a circadian clock. Deletion of the circadian clock gene, kaiC, abolishes rhythms of gene expression and cell division timing. Overexpression of the ftsZ gene halted cell division but not growth, causing cells to grow as filaments without dividing. The nondividing filamentous cells still exhibited robust circadian rhythms of gene expression. This result indicates that the circadian timing system is independent of rhythmic cell division and, together with other results, suggests that the cyanobacterial circadian system is stable and well sustained under a wide range of intracellular conditions.


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