Abstract
In cnidarians, axial patterning is not restricted to embryogenesis but continues throughout a prolonged life history filled with unpredictable environmental changes. How this developmental capacity copes with fluctuations of food availability and whether it recapitulates embryonic mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we utilize the tentacles of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis as an experimental paradigm for developmental patterning across distinct life history stages. By analyzing over 1000 growing polyps, we find that tentacle progression is stereotyped and occurs in a feeding-dependent manner. Using a combination of genetic, cellular and molecular approaches, we demonstrate that the crosstalk between Target of Rapamycin (TOR) and Fibroblast growth factor receptor b (Fgfrb) signaling in ring muscles defines tentacle primordia in fed polyps. Interestingly, Fgfrb-dependent polarized growth is observed in polyp but not embryonic tentacle primordia. These findings show an unexpected plasticity of tentacle development, and link post-embryonic body patterning with food availability.
Highlights
In cnidarians, axial patterning is not restricted to embryogenesis but continues throughout a prolonged life history filled with unpredictable environmental changes
To determine how cnidarians regulate organogenesis across life history stages, and whether this process recapitulates embryonic development or employs distinct mechanisms, here we study postembryonic tentacle development in the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis
Using in situ hybridization and a transgenic reporter line, we show that discrete Fibroblast growth factor receptor b (Fgfrb)-positive ring muscles prefigure the sites of new tentacles in unfed polyps
Summary
Axial patterning is not restricted to embryogenesis but continues throughout a prolonged life history filled with unpredictable environmental changes. These findings show an unexpected plasticity of tentacle development, and link post-embryonic body patterning with food availability Cnidarians such as sea anemones, corals, and hydrozoans have continuous developmental capacities[1,2,3]. By generating a knockout line, we demonstrate that Fgfrb is required to regionally enhance TOR signaling activity and promote polarized growth, a spatial pattern that is restricted to polyp, but not to embryonic tentacle primordia. These results identify distinct trajectories of tentacle development, and show that the cross talk between TOR-mediated nutrient signaling and FGFRb pathway couples postembryonic body patterning with food availability
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