Planar cell polarity coordination in a cnidarian embryo provides clues to animal body axis evolution.

ABSTRACT: Body axis specification is a crucial event in animal embryogenesis and was an essential evolutionary innovation for founding the animal kingdom. This process involves two distinct components that coordinate to establish the spatial organisation of the embryo: initiation of cascades of regionalised gene expression and orientation of morphogenetic processes such as body elongation. Intense interest in the first component has revealed Wnt/β-catenin signalling as ancestrally responsible for initiating regional gene expression, but the evolutionary origin of oriented morphogenesis has received little attention. Here, by addressing the cell and morphological basis of body axis development in embryos of the cnidarian Clytia hemisphaerica, we have uncovered a simple and likely ancestral coo

SUBMITTER: Uveira J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12221298 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature