Evolutionarily conserved Wnt/Sp5 signaling is critical for anterior-posterior axis patterning in sea urchin embryos.

ABSTRACT: Studies across a diverse group of metazoan embryos indicate that Wnt signaling often activates the transcription factor Sp5, forming a signaling 'cassette' that plays critical roles in many developmental processes. This study explores the role of Wnt/Sp5 signaling during the specification and patterning of the primary germ layers during early anterior-posterior axis formation in the deuterostome sea urchin embryo. Our functional analyses show that Sp5 is critical for endomesoderm specification downstream of Wnt/β-catenin in posterior cells as well as anterior neuroectoderm patterning downstream of non-canonical Wnt/JNK signaling in anterior cells. Interestingly, expression and functional data comparisons show that Wnt/Sp5 signaling often plays similar roles in posterior endomesoderm as wel

SUBMITTER: Gautam S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10765061 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature