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Evolution of the role of RA and FGF signals in the control of somitogenesis in chordates

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Date
15/09/2015
Author
Bertrand, Stéphanie
Aldea, Daniel
Oulion, Silvan
Subirana, Lucie
de Lera, Angel R.
Somorjai, Ildiko Maureen Lara
Escriva, Hector
Keywords
Somitogenesis
L/R asymmetry
Amphioxus
Evo-Devo
Retinoic acid
Fibroblast growth factor
QH301 Biology
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Abstract
During vertebrate development, the paraxial mesoderm becomes segmented, forming somites that will give rise to dermis, axial skeleton and skeletal muscles. Although recently challenged, the "clock and wavefront" model for somitogenesis explains how interactions between several cell-cell communication pathways, including the FGF, RA, Wnt and Notch signals, control the formation of these bilateral symmetric blocks. In the cephalochordate amphioxus, which belongs to the chordate phylum together with tunicates and vertebrates, the dorsal paraxial mesendoderm also periodically forms somites, although this process is asymmetric and extends along the whole body. It has been previously shown that the formation of the most anterior somites in amphioxus is dependent upon FGF signalling. However, the signals controlling somitogenesis during posterior elongation in amphioxus are still unknown. Here we show that, contrary to vertebrates, RA and FGF signals act independently during posterior elongation and that they are not mandatory for posterior somites to form. Moreover, we show that RA is not able to buffer the left/right asymmetry machinery that is controlled through the asymmetric expression of Nodal pathway actors. Our results give new insights into the evolution of the somitogenesis process in chordates. They suggest that RA and FGF pathways have acquired specific functions in the control of somitogenesis in vertebrates. We propose that the "clock and wavefront" system was selected specifically in vertebrates in parallel to the development of more complex somite-derived 45 structures but that it was not required for somitogenesis in the ancestor of chordates.
Citation
Bertrand , S , Aldea , D , Oulion , S , Subirana , L , de Lera , A R , Somorjai , I M L & Escriva , H 2015 , ' Evolution of the role of RA and FGF signals in the control of somitogenesis in chordates ' , PLoS One , vol. 10 , no. 9 , e0136587 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136587
Publication
PLoS One
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136587
ISSN
1932-6203
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2015 Bertrand et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Description
The laboratory of HE is supported by the ANR BLAN 1716 01. IMLS´s laboratory is currently supported by MASTS (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland).
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/7483

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