DOI: 10.1073/pnas.95.16.9343. β-Catenin is essential for patterning the maternally specified animal-vegetal axis in the sea urchin embryo

β-Catenin is essential for patterning the maternally specified animal-vegetal axis in the sea urchin embryo

10.1073/pnas.95.16.9343

Crossref journal-article

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (341)

Abstract

In sea urchin embryos, the animal-vegetal axis is specified during oogenesis. After fertilization, this axis is patterned to produce five distinct territories by the 60-cell stage. Territorial specification is thought to occur by a signal transduction cascade that is initiated by the large micromeres located at the vegetal pole. The molecular mechanisms that mediate the specification events along the animal–vegetal axis in sea urchin embryos are largely unknown. Nuclear β-catenin is seen in vegetal cells of the early embryo, suggesting that this protein plays a role in specifying vegetal cell fates. Here, we test this hypothesis and show that β-catenin is necessary for vegetal plate specification and is also sufficient for endoderm formation. In addition, we show that β-catenin has pronounced effects on animal blastomeres and is critical for specification of aboral ectoderm and for ectoderm patterning, presumably via a noncell-autonomous mechanism. These results support a model in which a Wnt-like signal released by vegetal cells patterns the early embryo along the animal–vegetal axis. Our results also reveal similarities between the sea urchin animal–vegetal axis and the vertebrate dorsal–ventral axis, suggesting that these axes share a common evolutionary origin.

Bibliography

Wikramanayake, A. H., Huang, L., & Klein, W. H. (1998). Î²-Catenin is essential for patterning the maternally specified animal-vegetal axis in the sea urchin embryo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95(16), 9343â9348.

Authors 3

Athula H. Wikramanayake (first)
Ling Huang (additional)
William H. Klein (additional)

References 32 Referenced 234

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Dates

Type	When
Created	23 years, 1 month ago (July 26, 2002, 10:39 a.m.)
Deposited	3 years, 4 months ago (April 13, 2022, 4:41 p.m.)
Indexed	1 month ago (July 30, 2025, 11:13 a.m.)
Issued	27 years, 1 month ago (Aug. 4, 1998)
Published	27 years, 1 month ago (Aug. 4, 1998)
Published Online	27 years, 1 month ago (Aug. 4, 1998)
Published Print	27 years, 1 month ago (Aug. 4, 1998)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Wikramanayake_1998, title={β-Catenin is essential for patterning the maternally specified animal-vegetal axis in the sea urchin embryo}, volume={95}, ISSN={1091-6490}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.95.16.9343}, DOI={10.1073/pnas.95.16.9343}, number={16}, journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, publisher={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, author={Wikramanayake, Athula H. and Huang, Ling and Klein, William H.}, year={1998}, month=aug, pages={9343–9348} }

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