Differential Wnt and Hh signaling in head and growth zone of a short germ embryo
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ABSTRACT: Purpose: Combination of systemic RNAi with RNAseq to identify target genes of important pathways in early development Drosophila early patterning occurs in the syncytial blastoderm where transcription factors diffuse between cells. However, in typical insect embryos, patterning occurs in a cellularized environment where signaling pathways are likely to play a more fundamental role. We use the short germ beetle Tribolium castaneum to investigate two putative Wnt and Hh signaling centers located in the anlagen of head and growth zone. These structures are known to develop in a different way in short germ insects. We find that Hh acts upstream of Wnt in the head, which is different from the Drosophila situation. In the growth zone Wnt signaling acts upstream. For the first time outside Drosophila, we comprehensively determine the Wnt and Hh target gene sets and distinguish the anterior from the posterior gene sets by genetically depleting head or growth zone. Surprisingly, there are significantly more targets in the growth zone than in the head for both pathways and we find that their growth zone gene sets are essentially non-overlapping. Furthermore, several pair rule genes, Tc-caudal, Tc-twist and hindgut patterning genes are regulated by Wnt signaling. In addition, Wnt controls growth zone metabolism and cell division. Posterior Hh signaling activates several genes potentially involved in a proteinase cascade of unknown function. Unexpectedly, we find the Wnt target Tc-senseless to be required for hindgut development. 10-11 h old whole embyro mRNA profiles of the following treatments: reference: wild type 100bp single read triplicates reference: wild type 50bp single read triplicates treatment: Tc-arrow RNAi knockdown 50 bp single read triplicates treatment: Tc-frizzled1/2 RNAi double knockdown 50 bp single read triplicates treatment: Tc-hedgehog RNAi knockdown 100bp single reads quadruplicates treatment: Tc-orthodenticle RNAi knockdown 100bp single reads triplicates treatment: Tc-torso RNAi knockdown 100bp single reads triplicates treatment: Tc-wntless RNAi knockdown 50bp single reads triplicates Total: 2 references, 6 treatments, 25 sequencing runs
ORGANISM(S): Tribolium castaneum
SUBMITTER: Georg Oberhofer
PROVIDER: E-GEOD-54706 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
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