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Unraveling the Genetic Landscape of Eye Migration and Visual Adaptation during Flatfish Metamorphosis

ABSTRACT: Flatfish have evolved their visual system to meet the demands of their environment through a fascinating process of metamorphosis. This morphological transformation involves a significant change in lifestyle from pelagic to benthic, accompanied by changes in body structure to achieve an asymmetrical flat shape. However, the fundamental change lies in the migration of one eye from its original position to the opposite location on the body. Although the role of thyroid hormone in triggering flatfish metamorphosis is well established, the specific gene regulatory network responsible for this extraordinary eye migration is still unknown. Here we show a global view through the creation of a general map of gene expression during the metamorphic process, encompassing both migrant and non-migrant eyes. Our research uncovers significant differences between migrant and non-migrant eyes of turbot in the pre-metamorphic and climax phases, emphasizing genetic disparities crucial for benthic adaptation.

ORGANISM(S): Scophthalmus maximus

PROVIDER: GSE245741 | GEO | 2024/02/06

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:To adapt to its changing dietary environment, the digestive tract is extensively remodeled from the embryo to the adult during vertebrate development. Xenopus laevis metamorphosis is an excellent model system for studying mammalian gastrointestinal development and is used to determine the genes and signaling programs essential for intestinal development and maturation. The metamorphosing intestine can be divided into four distinct developmental time points and these were analyzed with X. laevis microarrays. Due to the high level of conservation in developmental signaling programs and homology to mammalian genes, annotations and bioinformatics analysis were based on human orthologs. Clustering of the expression patterns revealed co-expressed genes involved in essential cell processes such as apoptosis and proliferation. The two largest clusters of genes have expression peaks and troughs at the climax of metamorphosis respectively. Novel conserved gene ontology categories regulated during this period include transcriptional activity, signal transduction, and metabolic processes. Interestingly, the induced genes associated with metamorphic climax correlated with the gene expression peaks observed around birth in the mouse intestine. Thus both mouse and amphibian, share similarities at the molecular levels for intestinal maturation and remodeling, which appears to be under the influence of increasing levels of circulating thyroid hormone. Moreover, our genome-wide analysis of the intestine during development identified larval/embryo- and adult-specific genes. Detailed analysis revealed 17 larval specific genes that may represent molecular markers for human colonic cancers, while many adult specific genes are associated with dietary enzymes. This global developmental expression study provides the first detailed molecular description of intestinal remodeling and maturation during postembryonic development, which should help improve our understanding of intestinal organogenesis and human diseases. This study significantly contributes towards our understanding of the dynamics of molecular regulation during development and tissue renewal, which is important for future basic and clinical research and for medicinal applications. Time series experiment through natural metamorphosis of intestine in Xenopus laevis. Biological replicates: 3 replicates for each stage of major change during amphibian metamorphosis (except in the climax where 2 bioogical replicates were used). Universal reference design was used instead of dye-swap design for 2-color hybridizations.

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Unraveling the Genetic Landscape of Eye Migration and Visual Adaptation during Flatfish Metamorphosis

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