A fate map of the vegetal plate of the sea urchin (Lytechinus variegatus) mesenchyme blastula

Development ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 253-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.W. Ruffins ◽  
C.A. Ettensohn
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Lineage Tracing ◽  
Lytechinus Variegatus ◽  
Fate Map ◽  
Blastula Stage ◽  
Cell Stage ◽  
Mesodermal Cell ◽  
Single Blastomeres

Previous lineage tracing experiments have shown that the vegetal blastomers of cleavage stage embryos give rise to all the mesoderm and endoderm of the sea urchin larva. In these studies, vegetal blastomers were labeled no later than the sixth cleavage division (60-64 cell stage). In an earlier study we showed that single cells in the vegetal plate of the blastula stage Lytechinus variegatus embryo could be labeled in situ with the fluorescent, lipophilic dye, DiI(C18), and that cells labeled in the central region of the vegetal plate of the mesenchyme blastula primarily gave rise to homogeneous clones consisting of a single secondary mesenchyme cell (SMC) type (Ruffins and Ettensohn (1993) Dev. Biol. 160, 285–288). Our clonal labeling showed that a detailed fate map could be generated using the DiI(C18) labeling technique. Such a fate map could provide information about the spatial relationships between the precursors of specific mesodermal and endodermal cell types and information concerning the movements of these cells during gastrulation and later embryogenesis. We have used this method to construct the first detailed fate map of the vegetal plate of the sea urchin embryo. Ours is a latitudinal map; mapping from the plate center, where the mesodermal precursors reside, through the region which contains the endodermal precursors and across the ectodermal boundary. We found that the precursors of certain SMC types are segregated in the mesenchyme blastula stage vegetal plate and that prospective germ layers reside within specific boundaries. To determine whether the vegetal plate is radially symmetrical with respect to mesodermal cell fates, single blastomeres of four cell stage embryos were injected with lysyl-rhodamine dextran (LRD). The resulting ectodermal labeling patterns were classified and correlated with the SMC types labeled. This analysis indicates that the dorsal and ventral blastomers do not contribute equally to SMC derivatives in L. variegatus.

Origin and behaviour of pigment cells in sea urchin embryos

Zygote ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (S1) ◽  
pp. S42-S43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuya Kominami
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Pigment Cell ◽  
Cell Lineage ◽  
Pigment Cells ◽  
Cleavage Stage ◽  
Fate Map ◽  
Blastula Stage ◽  
Cell Stage ◽  
Stage Embryo ◽  
Founder Cells

Sea urchin pluteus larvae contain dozens of pigment cells in their ectoderm. These pigment cells are the descendants of the veg2 blastomeres of the 60-cell stage embryo. According to the fate map made by Ruffins and Ettensohn, the prospective pigment cells occupy the central region of the vegetal plate. Most of these prospective pigment cells exclusively give rise to pigment cells. Therefore, specification of the pigment cell lineage should occur at some point between the 60-cell and mesenchyme blastula stage. However, the detailed process of the specification of the pigment lineage is unknown.When are pigment cells specified? Are cell interactions necessary for the specification? Do founder cells exist? To answer these questions, I treated embryos with Ca2+-free seawater during the cleavage stage and examined the number of pigment cells observed in pluteus larvae. Treatment at 5.5–8.5 h and especially 7.5–10.5 h postfertilisation markedly reduced the number of pigment cells. The decrease was statistically significant. On the other hand, the treatment at 3.5–6.5 h or 9.5–12.5 h never reduced the number of pigment cells. By examining the frequency of the appearance of embryos whose numbers of pigment cells were less than 20, it was also found that the numbers of pigment cells were frequently in multiples of 4. Embryos having 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 pigment cells were more frequently observed. Statistics indicated that the frequency of appearance was not random. These results indicated that cell contacts are necessary for the specification of pigment cells and that the specification occurs from 7 to 10 h postfertilisation. The results also suggest that the founder cells, if they exist, divide twice before they differentiate into pigment cells.

Spatial and temporal expression pattern during sea urchin embryogenesis of a gene coding for a protease homologous to the human protein BMP-1 and to the product of the Drosophila dorsal-ventral patterning gene tolloid

Development ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Lepage ◽  
C. Ghiglione ◽  
C. Gache
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Catalytic Domain ◽  
Intracellular Localization ◽  
Regulation Of Gene Expression ◽  
Drosophila Embryo ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Fate Map ◽  
Blastula Stage ◽  
Cell Stage ◽  
Short Period

A cDNA clone coding for a sea urchin embryonic protein was isolated from a prehatching blastula lambda gt11 library. The predicted translation product is a secreted 64 × 10(3) Mr enzyme designated as BP10. The protein contains several domains: a signal peptide, a putative propeptide, a catalytic domain with an active center typical of a Zn(2+)-metalloprotease, an EGF-like domain and two internal repeats similar to repeated domains found in the C1s and C1r serine proteases of the complement cascade. The BP10 protease is constructed with the same domains as the human bone morphogenetic protein BMP-1, a protease described as a factor involved in bone formation, and as the recently characterized product of the tolloid gene which is required for correct dorsal-ventral patterning of the Drosophila embryo. The transcription of the BP10 gene is transiently activated around the 16- to 32-cell stage and the accumulation of BP10 transcripts is limited to a short period at the blastula stage. By in situ hybridization with digoxygenin-labelled RNA probes, the BP10 transcripts were only detected in a limited area of the blastula, showing that the transcription of the BP10 gene is also spatially controlled. Antibodies directed against a fusion protein were used to detect the BP10 protein in embryonic extracts. The protein is first detected in early blastula stages, its level peaks in late cleavage, declines abruptly before ingression of primary mesenchyme cells and remains constant in late development. The distribution of the BP10 protein during its synthesis and secretion was analysed by immunostaining blastula-stage embryos. The intracellular localization of the BP10 staining varies with time. The protein is first detected in a perinuclear region, then in an apical and submembranous position just before its secretion into the perivitelline space. The protein is synthesized in a sharply delimited continuous territory spanning about 70% of the blastula. Comparison of the size and orientation of the labelled territory in the late blastula with the fate map of the blastula stage embryo shows that the domain in which the BP10 gene is expressed corresponds to the presumptive ectoderm. Developing embryos treated with purified antibodies against the BP10 protein and with synthetic peptides derived from the EGF-like domain displayed perturbations in morphogenesis and were radialized to various degrees. These results are consistent with a role for BP10 in the differentiation of ectodermal lineages and subsequent patterning of the embryo. On the basis of these results, we speculate that the role of BP10 in the sea urchin embryo might be similar to that of tolloid in Drosophila. We discuss the idea that the processes of spatial regulation of gene expression along the animal-vegetal in sea urchin and dorsal-ventral axes in Drosophila might have some similarities and might use common elements.

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.

Autonomous expression of tissue-specific genes in dissociated sea urchin embryos

Development ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Stephens ◽  
T. Kitajima ◽  
F. Wilt
Keyword(s):  
Early Development ◽  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Cell Interactions ◽  
Cell Stage ◽  
Tissue Specific ◽  
Specific Transcript ◽  
Sea Urchin Embryos ◽  
Early Stages

The effects of disrupting cell interactions in early development were investigated by examining the accumulation of a primary mesenchyme specific transcript (SM50) and an aboral ectoderm-specific transcript (Spec 1) in cultures of sea urchin embryos that were dissociated at early stages and then cultured in CFSW. The expression of both SM50 and Spec 1 is temporally correct and remains restricted to the appropriate cell types, even if the embryo is dissociated as early as the 2-cell stage and maintained as a suspension of single cells. This result is consistent with the idea that the specificity of expression of these two genes, each characteristic of different lineages, is strongly regulated by information in the egg. Average SM50 expression is half that of intact embryos, but Spec 1 expression is very low, only 10–20% of intact controls, suggesting some differences in the response of the two genes to lack of close cell interactions.

Intercellular signalling in mesoderm formation during amphibian development

1993 ◽  
Vol 340 (1293) ◽  
pp. 287-296 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Positional Information ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
The Body ◽  
Fibroblast Growth ◽  
Blastula Stage ◽  
Mesodermal Cell ◽  
Inductive Interaction ◽  
Mesoderm Formation ◽  
Stage Embryo ◽  
Intercellular Signalling

The mesoderm of amphibian embryos arises through an inductive interaction in which a signal from the vegetal hemisphere of the blastula-stage embryo acts on overlying equatorial cells. Strong candidates for endogenous mesoderm-inducing signals include members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and activin families. In this paper we show that cells form different mesodermal cell types in response to different concentrations of these factors, and that graded distributions of activin and FGF can, in principle, provide sufficient positional information to generate the body plan of the Xenopus embryo.

scholarly journals The ALK-2 and ALK-4 activin receptors transduce distinct mesoderm-inducing signals during early Xenopus development but do not co-operate to establish thresholds

Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (19) ◽  
pp. 3797-3804 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.A. Armes ◽  
J.C. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Cell Types ◽  
Type I ◽  
Cell Stage ◽  
Mesodermal Cell ◽  
Threshold Phenomenon ◽  
Dose Dependent Fashion ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Dose Dependent ◽  
Activin Receptors ◽  
Constitutively Active

The TGFbeta family member activin induces different mesodermal cell types in a dose-dependent fashion in the Xenopus animal cap assay. High concentrations of activin induce dorsal and anterior cell types such as notochord and muscle, while low concentrations induce ventral and posterior tissues such as mesenchyme and mesothelium. In this paper we investigate whether this threshold phenomenon involves the differential effects of the two type I activin receptors ALK-2 and ALK-4. Injection of RNA encoding constitutively active forms of the receptors (here designated ALK-2* and ALK-4*) reveals that ALK-4* strongly induces the more posterior mesodermal marker Xbra and the dorsoanterior marker goosecoid in animal cap explants. Maximal levels of Xbra expression are attained using lower concentrations of RNA than are required for the strongest activation of goosecoid, and at the highest doses of ALK-4*, levels of Xbra transcription decrease, as is seen with high concentrations of activin. By contrast, the ALK-2* receptor activates Xbra but fails to induce goosecoid to significant levels. Analysis at later stages reveals that ALK-4* signalling induces the formation of a variety of mesodermal derivatives, including dorsal cell types, in a dose-dependent fashion, and that high levels also induce endoderm. By contrast, the ALK-2* receptor induces only ventral mesodermal markers. Consistent with these observations, ALK-4* is capable of inducing a secondary axis when injected into the ventral side of 32-cell stage embryos whilst ALK-2* cannot. Co-injection of RNAs encoding constitutively active forms of both receptors reveals that ventralising signals from ALK-2* antagonise the dorsal mesoderm-inducing signal derived from ALK-4*, suggesting that the two receptors use distinct and interfering signalling pathways. Together, these results show that although ALK-2* and ALK-4* transduce distinct signals, the threshold responses characteristic of activin cannot be due to interactions between these two pathways; rather, thresholds can be established by ALK-4* alone. Furthermore, the effects of ALK-2* signalling are at odds with it behaving as an activin receptor in the early Xenopus embryo.

scholarly journals Massively parallel single cell lineage tracing using CRISPR/Cas9 induced genetic scars

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastiaan Spanjaard ◽  
Bo Hu ◽  
Nina Mitic ◽  
Jan Philipp Junker
Keyword(s):  
Single Cell ◽  
Computational Analysis ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Cell Lineage ◽  
Transcriptome Profiling ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Lineage Tracing ◽  
Lineage Trees ◽  
Different Cell Types

A key goal of developmental biology is to understand how a single cell transforms into a full-grown organism consisting of many different cell types. Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) has become a widely-used method due to its ability to identify all cell types in a tissue or organ in a systematic manner 1–3. However, a major challenge is to organize the resulting taxonomy of cell types into lineage trees revealing the developmental origin of cells. Here, we present a strategy for simultaneous lineage tracing and transcriptome profiling in thousands of single cells. By combining scRNA-seq with computational analysis of lineage barcodes generated by genome editing of transgenic reporter genes, we reconstruct developmental lineage trees in zebrafish larvae and adult fish. In future analyses, LINNAEUS (LINeage tracing by Nuclease-Activated Editing of Ubiquitous Sequences) can be used as a systematic approach for identifying the lineage origin of novel cell types, or of known cell types under different conditions.

scholarly journals Regulation of C-cadherin function during activin induced morphogenesis of Xenopus animal caps.

1994 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
W M Brieher ◽  
B M Gumbiner
Keyword(s):  
Cell Adhesion ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Aggregation Assay ◽  
Animal Pole ◽  
Mesodermal Cell ◽  
Calcium Dependent ◽  
L Cells ◽  
Steady State Levels ◽  
Cell Cell

Treatment of Xenopus animal pole tissue with activin results in the induction of mesodermal cell types and a dramatic elongation of the tissue. The morphogenetic movements involved in the elongation appear similar to those in normal gastrulation, which is driven by cell rearrangement and cell intercalations. We have used this system to explore the potential regulation of cell-cell adhesion and cadherin function during morphogenesis. Quantitative blastomere aggregation assays revealed that activin induction reduced the calcium-dependent adhesion between blastomeres. Activin-induced blastomeres formed smaller aggregates, and a greater proportion of the population remained as single cells compared to uninduced blastomeres. The aggregation was mediated by C-cadherin because C-cadherin was present in the blastomeres during the aggregation assay, and monoclonal antibodies against C-cadherin inhibited the calcium-dependent aggregation of blastomeres. E-cadherin was not detectable until after the completion of the assay and, therefore, does not explain the adhesive differences between induced and uninduced blastomeres. L cells stably expressing C-cadherin (LC cells) were used to demonstrate that C-cadherin activity was specifically altered after activin induction. Blastomeres induced with activin bound fewer LC cells than uninduced blastomers. L cells not expressing C-cadherin did not adhere to blastomeres. The changes in C-cadherin-mediated adhesion occurred without detectable changes in the steady-state levels of C-cadherin or the amount of C-cadherin present on the surface of the cell. Immunoprecipitation of C-cadherin and its associated catenins revealed that the ratio of C-cadherin and the catenins was not altered by activin induction. These results demonstrate that activin decreases the adhesive function of existing C-cadherin molecules on the surface of blastomeres and suggest that decreased cadherin mediated cell-cell adhesion is associated with increased morphogenetic movement.

Analysis of clonal restriction of cell mingling in Xenopus

1985 ◽  
Vol 312 (1153) ◽  
pp. 57-65 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Horseradish Peroxidase ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Cell Group ◽  
Cell Stage ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cell Groups ◽  
Cell Layers ◽  
Single Blastomeres

Cell fates were traced by injecting horseradish peroxidase into single blastomeres of Xenopus embryos at 2- to 512-cell stages. At later stages the number, types and locations of all labelled progeny were observed. Progeny of a single labelled ancestral cell divided coherently until the 12th cell generation, the onset of gastrulation, and then dispersed and mingled with unlabelled cells. Cell mingling was restricted at mediolateral and anterior—posterior boundaries. These boundaries were always respected by progeny of any blastomere labelled at the 512-cell stage but they were frequently crossed by progeny of blastomeres labelled at the 256-cell or earlier stages. The boundaries defined seven morphological compartments each populated exclusively by a group of ancestral cells at the 512-cell stage. Each blastomere that contributed progeny to the nervous system also gave rise to a wide range of cell types in all three primary germ cell layers but the clone was restricted to a single compartment. Analysis of clonal restriction of cell mingling was done in vitro . Twenty to thirty blastomeres were excised from one ancestral cell group at the 512-cell stage and combined in vitro with 20-30 blastomeres from another group. One group of blastomeres labelled with horseradish peroxidase was placed in contact with another group of unlabelled blastomeres, maintained in vitro for up to 2 days, and then processed histologically to show the distribution of labelled and unlabelled cells. Mingling was significantly greater in combinations of two of the same ancestral cell groups than in combinations of two different ancestral cell groups. A similar result was observed when a single labelled cell was combined with either the same or different ancestral cells. In all experiments the cells were significantly larger in combinations of different ancestral cell groups, indicating that they had undergone fewer divisions. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that boundaries observed in vivo are lines of clonal restriction formed by mutual inhibition of cell motility and cell division following contact between progeny of different ancestral cell groups.

scholarly journals Developmental capacity is unevenly distributed among single blastomeres of 2-cell and 4-cell stage mouse embryos

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Krawczyk ◽  
Ewa Kosyl ◽  
Karolina Częścik-Łysyszyn ◽  
Tomasz Wyszomirski ◽  
Marek Maleszewski
Keyword(s):  
Single Cells ◽  
Cell Lineage ◽  
Monozygotic Twins ◽  
Mouse Embryos ◽  
Cell Stage ◽  
Mammalian Embryo ◽  
Cell Lineages ◽  
Embryo Cells ◽  
Developmental Capacity ◽  
Single Blastomeres

AbstractDuring preimplantation development, mammalian embryo cells (blastomeres) cleave, gradually losing their potencies and differentiating into three primary cell lineages: epiblast (EPI), trophectoderm (TE), and primitive endoderm (PE). The exact moment at which cells begin to vary in their potency for multilineage differentiation still remains unknown. We sought to answer the question of whether single cells isolated from 2- and 4-cell embryos differ in their ability to generate the progenitors and cells of blastocyst lineages. We revealed that twins were often able to develop into blastocysts containing inner cell masses (ICMs) with PE and EPI cells. Despite their capacity to create a blastocyst, the twins differed in their ability to produce EPI, PE, and TE cell lineages. In contrast, quadruplets rarely formed normal blastocysts, but instead developed into blastocysts with ICMs composed of only one cell lineage or completely devoid of an ICM altogether. We also showed that quadruplets have unequal capacities to differentiate into TE, PE, and EPI lineages. These findings could explain the difficulty of creating monozygotic twins and quadruplets from 2- and 4-cell stage mouse embryos.

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