Uncoupling of complex regulatory patterning during evolution of larval development in echinoderms.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Conservation of orthologous regulatory gene expression domains, especially along the neuroectodermal anterior-posterior axis, in animals as disparate as flies and vertebrates suggests that common patterning mechanisms have been conserved since the base of Bilateria. The homology of axial patterning is far less clear for the many marine animals that undergo a radical transformation in body plan during metamorphosis. The embryos of these animals are microscopic, feeding within the plankton until they metamorphose into their adult forms.

Results

We describe here the localization of 14 transcription factors within the ectoderm during early embryogenesis in Patiria miniata, a sea star with an indirectly developing planktonic bipinnaria larva. We find that the animal-ve

SUBMITTER: Yankura KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3002323 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature