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SOX17 links gut endoderm morphogenesis and germ layer segregation.

ABSTRACT: Gastrulation leads to three germ layers--ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm--that are separated by two basement membranes. In the mouse embryo, the emergent gut endoderm results from the widespread intercalation of cells of two distinct origins: pluripotent epiblast-derived definitive endoderm (DE) and extra-embryonic visceral endoderm (VE). Here we image the trajectory of prospective DE cells before intercalating into the VE epithelium. We show that the transcription factor SOX17, which is activated in prospective DE cells before intercalation, is necessary for gut endoderm morphogenesis and the assembly of the basement membrane that separates gut endoderm from mesoderm. Our results mechanistically link gut endoderm morphogenesis and germ layer segregation, two central and conserved features of gastrulation.

SUBMITTER: Viotti M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4250291 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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SOX17 links gut endoderm morphogenesis and germ layer segregation.

Viotti Manuel M Nowotschin Sonja S Hadjantonakis Anna-Katerina AK

Nature cell biology 20141124 12

Gastrulation leads to three germ layers--ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm--that are separated by two basement membranes. In the mouse embryo, the emergent gut endoderm results from the widespread intercalation of cells of two distinct origins: pluripotent epiblast-derived definitive endoderm (DE) and extra-embryonic visceral endoderm (VE). Here we image the trajectory of prospective DE cells before intercalating into the VE epithelium. We show that the transcription factor SOX17, which is activat ...[more]

PMID: 25419850

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Project description:The germ layer concept has been one of the foremost organizing principles in developmental biology, classification, systematics and evolution for 150 years. Of the three germ layers, the mesoderm is found in bilaterian animals but is absent in species in the phyla Cnidaria and Ctenophora, which has been taken as evidence that the mesoderm was the final germ layer to evolve. The origin of the ectoderm and endoderm layers, however, remains unclear with models supporting the antecedence of each as well as a simultaneous origin. We hypothesized that global analysis of gene expression in each layer throughout development may resolve the early events of animal evolution. Here, we determine the temporal and spatial components of gene expression spanning embryonic development for all C. elegans genes and use it to determine the evolutionary age of the germ layers. The gene expression programs of the mesoderm is generally induced after the ectoderm and endoderm germ layers, thus making it the last germ layer to both evolve and develop. Strikingly, the C. elegans endoderm and ectoderm expression programs do not co-induce; rather the endoderm activates earlier. We also observed early expression of endoderm orthologs during the embryology of Xenopus tropicalis, Nematostella vectensis, and the sponge Amphimedon queenslandica. Querying for the phylogenetic ages of specifically expressed genes revealed that the endoderm is comprised of older genes, supporting its antecedence among the germ layers. Taken together, we propose that the endoderm program has retained the feeding functions of the last common ancestor with the choanoflagellates, thus allowing for the specialization of an ectoderm germ layer. Our work reveals that the evolutionary appearance of the germ layers continues to constrain regulatory networks in metazoans. Two temporal assays of C. elegans embryonic development, starting at the zygote: (a) Embryos collected at fixed (~10 minute) time intervals. (b) Embryo segregates, up to five lines of blastomeres, isolated in reference to mitotic events. There were 184 samples in total, representing 100 distnict data points.

Dataset Information

SOX17 links gut endoderm morphogenesis and germ layer segregation.

Publications

SOX17 links gut endoderm morphogenesis and germ layer segregation.

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