Maternal TGF-β ligand Panda breaks the radial symmetry of the sea urchin embryo by antagonizing the Nodal type II receptor ACVRII.

ABSTRACT: In the highly regulative embryo of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, establishment of the dorsal-ventral (D/V) axis critically depends on the zygotic expression of the TGF-β nodal in the ventral ectoderm. nodal expression is first induced ubiquitously in the 32-cell embryo and becomes progressively restricted to the presumptive ventral ectoderm by the early blastula stage. This early spatial restriction of nodal expression is independent of Lefty, and instead relies on the activity of Panda, a maternally expressed TGF-β ligand related to Lefty and Inhibins, which is required maternally for D/V axis specification. However, the mechanism by which Panda restricts the early nodal expression has remained enigmatic and it is not known if Panda works like a BMP ligand by opposing Nodal and an

SUBMITTER: Viswanathan PK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11239237 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature