Control Of Vertebrate Development Research Articles

Maternal transcripts in good and poor quality eggs from Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica-their identification by large-scale quantitative analysis.

Our understanding of maternal control of development in vertebrates remains incomplete. In this study, we investigated levels of maternal transcripts in good and poor quality eggs from artificially matured Japanese eel, using RNA-Seq and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), to identify candidate maternal transcripts related to development. De novo assembly or mapping of reads to the eel draft genome yielded 619,029 contigs and 85,906 transcripts, respectively; normalized read counts to these assemblies were calculated using reads (RPKM) or fragments (FPKM) per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads. In silico screening identified 1,594 contigs and 150 transcripts with lower RPKM or FPKM in poor than in good quality eggs, 245 contigs, and 85 transcripts of which could be annotated by BLASTx, respectively. From selected contigs or transcripts, six genes (dnajb4, gnpat, card14, pdp1, fcgbp, ttn) had significantly lower messenger RNA levels in poor than in good quality eggs by qPCR. Multiple regression analysis showed that five genes (gnpat, b4galnt1, acsl6, rtkn, trim24) significantly correlated with hatchability. Taken together, 10 genes were identified as candidate maternal transcripts, regulating development in Japanese eel. Our results contribute to understanding the molecular basis for maternal control of development in vertebrates.

Control of vertebrate development by MYC.

The study of MYC has led to pivotal discoveries in cancer biology, induced pluripotency, and transcriptional regulation. In this review, continuing advances in our understanding of the function of MYC as a transcription factor and how its transcriptional activity controls normal vertebrate development and contributes to developmental disorders is discussed.

Skeletal development in human

Our understanding of the genetic and molecular control of development in vertebrates has dramatically increased during the last 10 years through the discovery that molecular processes that control development in invertebrates have been conserved during evolution and are also found in vertebrates. Important developmental genes were identified that are not only similar in sequence but also in their molecular function in widely diverged organisms such as C.elegans, Drosophila, zebrafish, mice and man. From Drosophila studies it is now clear that epigenetic development is regulated by cascades of gene expression. Early acting regulatory genes initiate the developmental process and induce the expression of other downstream genes.

Maternal Control of Development in Vertebrates

Eggs of all animals contain mRNAs and proteins that are supplied to or deposited in the egg as it develops during oogenesis. These maternal gene products regulate all aspects of oocyte development, and an embryo fully relies on these maternal gene products for all aspects of its early development, including fertilization, transitions between meiotic and mitotic cell cycles, and activation of its own genome. Given the diverse processes required to produce a developmentally competent egg and embryo, it is not surprising that maternal gene products are not only essential for normal embryonic development but also for fertility. This review provides an overview of fundamental aspects of oocyte and early embryonic development and the interference and genetic approaches that have provided access to maternally regulated aspects of vertebrate development. Some of the pathways and molecules highlighted in this review, in particular, Bmps, Wnts, small GTPases, cytoskeletal components, and cell cycle regulators, are well known and are essential regulators of multiple aspects of animal development, including oogenesis, early embryogenesis, organogenesis, and reproductive fitness of the adult animal. Specific examples of developmental processes under maternal control and the essential proteins will be explored in each chapter, and where known conserved aspects or divergent roles for these maternal regulators of early vertebrate development will be discussed throughout this review.

Identification and analysis of cis-regulatory elements in development using comparative genomics with the pufferfish, Fugu rubripes

The control of vertebrate development is facilitated by cis-regulatory sequences hardwired into the genome. Given that many developmental processes are strikingly similar across all backboned animals, it is reasonable to expect these sequences to be conserved at the nucleotide level, their potential for mutation being constrained by their function. Comparison between the genomes of highly divergent organisms allows such sequences to be identified and some of the most successful approaches have compared regions from the pufferfish, Fugu rubripes, with its distant mammalian relatives, rodents and humans. This review describes progress made in this kind of comparison, from small regions of individual genes, to whole genome alignments.

Tripartite signaling of pattern: interactions between Hedgehogs, BMPs and Wnts in the control of vertebrate development

A central issue in embryonic development is the resolution of how groups of equivalent cells are transformed into orderly and patterned arrays of distinct cell types. Recent studies suggest the involvement of the Hedgehog. Wnt and bone morphogenetic protein families in the patterning of different tissue types in vertebrate embryos. The integrated actions of members of these three families of signaling proteins appear to have been recruited in the patterning of neural tissue in addition to several different tissues. Over the past year, a clearer picture of the diverse roles of these signaling proteins in embryonic development has begun to emerge.