Abstract
In cnidarians, long-term ecological success relies on sexual reproduction. The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, which has emerged as an important model organism for developmental studies, can be induced for spawning by temperature elevation and light exposure. To uncover molecular mechanisms and pathways underlying spawning, we characterized the transcriptome of Nematostella females before and during spawning induction. We identified an array of processes involving numerous receptors, circadian clock components, cytoskeleton, and extracellular transcripts that are upregulated upon spawning induction. Concurrently, processes related to the cell cycle, fatty acid metabolism, and other housekeeping functions are downregulated. Real-time qPCR revealed that light exposure has a minor effect on expression levels of most examined transcripts, implying that temperature change is a stronger inducer for spawning in Nematostella. Our findings reveal the potential mechanisms that may enable the mesenteries to serve as a gonad-like tissue for the developing oocytes and expand our understanding of sexual reproduction in cnidarians.
Highlights
In cnidarians, long-term ecological success relies on sexual reproduction
By characterizing the transcriptome of Nematostella females before and during the different stages of spawning induction, we identified an array of upregulated processes involving numerous receptors as well as extracellular matrix (ECM) organization and regulation of actin, along with downregulated processes related to cell cycle, fatty acid metabolism and other housekeeping functions
To understand the molecular pathways leading to the release of oocytes in Nematostella, females were induced by temperature elevation and light exposure and sampled for RNA-Seq analysis at 1, 2, 5, and 8 h during induction in addition to a pre-induction control sampling (Fig. 1A)
Summary
Long-term ecological success relies on sexual reproduction. The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, which has emerged as an important model organism for developmental studies, can be induced for spawning by temperature elevation and light exposure. By characterizing the transcriptome of Nematostella females before and during the different stages of spawning induction, we identified an array of upregulated processes involving numerous receptors as well as extracellular matrix (ECM) organization and regulation of actin, along with downregulated processes related to cell cycle, fatty acid metabolism and other housekeeping functions. The regulation of these processes sheds light on the possible mechanisms that may enable the mesenteries to serve as a gonad-like tissue for the developing oocyte
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