Dataset Information

Encoding of temporal signals by the TGF-? pathway and implications for embryonic patterning.

ABSTRACT: Genetics and biochemistry have defined the components and wiring of the signaling pathways that pattern the embryo. Among them, the transforming growth factor ? (TGF-?) pathway has the potential to behave as a morphogen: in vitro experiments established that it can dictate cell fate in a concentration-dependent manner. How morphogens convey positional information in a developing embryo, when signal levels change with time, is less understood. Using integrated microfluidic cell culture and time-lapse microscopy, we demonstrate here that the speed of ligand presentation has a key and previously unexpected influence on TGF-? signaling outcomes. The response to a TGF-? concentration step is transient and adaptive: slowly increasing the ligand concentration diminishes the response, and well-spaced pulses of ligand combine additively, resulting in greater pathway output than with constant stimulation. Our results suggest that in an embryonic context, the speed of change of ligand concentration is an instructive signal for patterning.

SUBMITTER: Sorre B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4165855 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Encoding of temporal signals by the TGF-β pathway and implications for embryonic patterning.

Sorre Benoit B Warmflash Aryeh A Brivanlou Ali H AH Siggia Eric D ED

Developmental cell 20140724 3

Genetics and biochemistry have defined the components and wiring of the signaling pathways that pattern the embryo. Among them, the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) pathway has the potential to behave as a morphogen: in vitro experiments established that it can dictate cell fate in a concentration-dependent manner. How morphogens convey positional information in a developing embryo, when signal levels change with time, is less understood. Using integrated microfluidic cell culture and time-l ...[more]

PMID: 25065773

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundThe origin of metazoan development and differentiation was contingent upon the evolution of cell adhesion, communication and cooperation mechanisms. While components of many of the major cell signalling pathways have been identified in a range of sponges (phylum Porifera), their roles in development have not been investigated and remain largely unknown. Here, we take the first steps toward reconstructing the developmental signalling systems used in the last common ancestor to living sponges and eumetazoans by studying the expression of genes encoding Wnt and TGF-beta signalling ligands during the embryonic development of a sponge.Methodology/principal findingsUsing resources generated in the recent sponge Amphimedon queenslandica (Demospongiae) genome project, we have recovered genes encoding Wnt and TGF-beta signalling ligands that are critical in patterning metazoan embryos. Both genes are expressed from the earliest stages of Amphimedon embryonic development in highly dynamic patterns. At the time when the Amphimedon embryos begin to display anterior-posterior polarity, Wnt expression becomes localised to the posterior pole and this expression continues until the swimming larva stage. In contrast, TGF-beta expression is highest at the anterior pole. As in complex animals, sponge Wnt and TGF-beta expression patterns intersect later in development during the patterning of a sub-community of cells that form a simple tissue-like structure, the pigment ring. Throughout development, Wnt and TGF-beta are expressed radially along the anterior-posterior axis.Conclusions/significanceWe infer from the expression of Wnt and TGF-beta in Amphimedon that the ancestor that gave rise to sponges, cnidarians and bilaterians had already evolved the capacity to direct the formation of relatively sophisticated body plans, with axes and tissues. The radially symmetrical expression patterns of Wnt and TGF-beta along the anterior-posterior axis of sponge embryos and larvae suggest that these signalling pathways contributed to establishing axial polarity in the very first metazoans.

Dataset Information

Encoding of temporal signals by the TGF-? pathway and implications for embryonic patterning.

Publications

Encoding of temporal signals by the TGF-β pathway and implications for embryonic patterning.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure