Antagonistic BMP-cWNT signaling in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis reveals insight into the evolution of mesoderm.

ABSTRACT: Gastrulation was arguably the key evolutionary innovation that enabled metazoan diversification, leading to the formation of distinct germ layers and specialized tissues. Differential gene expression specifying cell fate is governed by the inputs of intracellular and/or extracellular signals. Beta-catenin/Tcf and the TGF-beta bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) provide critical molecular signaling inputs during germ layer specification in bilaterian metazoans, but there has been no direct experimental evidence for a specific role for BMP signaling during endomesoderm specification in the early branching metazoan Nematostella vectensis (an anthozoan cnidarian). Using forward transcriptomics, we show that beta-catenin/Tcf signaling and BMP2/4 signaling provide differential inputs into th

SUBMITTER: Wijesena N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5514723 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature