Project description:The common house spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum is a chelicerate model organism for studying developmental mechanisms and their evolution in arthropods. In contrast to the well-studied model insect, Drosophila melanogaster, embryos of the spider undergo patterning in a cellular environment from early stages (at least after the number of the nuclei increase to 16). Use of spider embryos provide new opportunities to understand the evolution of developmental mechanisms underlying arthropod body plans. This analysis aims to generate genome-scale, developmental profiles of gene expression in embryos of the spider P. tepidariorum, which facilitate a wide range of studies using this spider species.
Project description:We identified a lineage-specific GATA-like gene named fuchi nashi (fuchi) as a gene required for establishing a germ disc in the early embryo of the common house spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum. To investigate possible involvement of the early fuchi activity in regulation of chromatin accessibility, we used an assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq). Whole embryos at stage 3 that were untreated (wild-type) or treated for fuchi or hedgehog (hh) parental RNAi (pRNAi), as well as wild-type whole embryos at stages 1 and 2, were analyzed by ATAC-seq. We found that chromatin accesibilities were specifically altered by fuchi pRNAi at many regions of the genome, whereas chromatin accessibilities were little affected by Pt-hh pRNAi, which served as negative control.
Project description:The early embryo of the spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum initially shows spherical symmetry in morphology. Following a symmetry breaking event, it forms a radially symmetric germ disc in the hemisphere of the egg. In this work, we conducted RNA-sequencing of cells isolated from small different regions of radially symmetric forming/formed germ discs, aming to identify candidate genes whose transcripts are locally expressed in early spider embryos.
Project description:Orb weavers place aggregate glue on a stretchy capture spiral, whereas cobweb weavers add it to the ends of strong, stiff fibers, called gumfoot lines. We describe the quantitative proteomics of the aggregate glues of two cobweb weaving species, the Western black widow, Latrodectus hesperus, and the common house spider, Parasteatoda tepidariorum. For each species respectively, we identified 48 and 33 proteins that were significantly more abundant in the portion of the gumfoot line with glue than in its fibers. These proteins were highly enriched for glycosylation and phosphorylation relative to proteins found in silk fibers. Most enriched proteins were of anterior aggregate gland origin, supporting the hypothesis that cobweb weavers’ posterior aggregate glue is specialized for another function..
