Project description:The notochord is an evolutionary novelty in vertebrates that functions as an important signaling center during development. Notochord ablation in chicken has demonstrated that it is crucial for pancreas development; however, the molecular mechanism has not been fully described. Here, we show that in zebrafish, the loss of function of nog2, a Bmp antagonist expressed in the notochord, impairs β cell differentiation, compatible with the antagonistic role of Bmp in β cell differentiation. In addition, we show that nog2 expression in the notochord is induced by at least one notochord enhancer and its loss of function reduces the number of pancreatic progenitors and impairs β cell differentiation. Tracing Nog2 diffusion, we show that Nog2 emanates from the notochord to the pancreas progenitor domain. Finally, we find a notochord enhancer in human and mice Nog genomic landscapes, suggesting that the acquisition of a Nog notochord enhancer occurred early in the vertebrate phylogeny and contributes to the development of complex organs like the pancreas.
Project description:The notochord is the eponymous feature of the chordates and an essential organ in chordate development. The notochord of the invertebrate chordate Ciona consists of only 40 cells, and is a longstanding model for studying differentiation and morphogenesis in a small, simple embryo. Here we perform RNAseq analysis on flow-sorted notochord cells from multiple stages of development to define a comprehensive Ciona notochord transcriptome. We identify 1364 genes with enriched expression in the notochord and extensively validate the results by in situ hybridization. This notochord gene set is highly enriched for Gene Ontology codes related to the extracellular matrix, cell adhesion and cytoskeleton, and contains numerous genes with intriguing potential functions in morphogenesis. Orthologs of 112 of the Ciona notochord genes have known notochord expression in vertebrates, more than twice as many as would be predicted by chance alone. This set of putative effector genes with notochord expression conserved from tunicates to vertebrates will be invaluable for testing hypotheses about the evolution of the notochord.
Project description:Genetic dissection of the mouse Brachyury locus identified a notochord enhancer and predicts additional control elements essential for trunk and tail development of the mouse embryo.
Project description:We screened for differentially expressed genes in the developing notochord using the Affymetrix microarray system in Xenopus laevis. At late gastrula, we dissected four regions from the embryo, anterior mesoderm, posterior mesoderm, notochord and presomitic mesoderm. Three types of comparison were carried out to generate a list of predominantly notochord expressed genes: (1) Posterior mesoderm vs. anterior mesoderm; notochord genes are expected to be increased since the notochord is located in the posterior mesoderm. (2) Posterior mesoderm vs. whole embryos; notochord genes are expected to be increased. (3) Notochord vs. somite. This comparison sub-divided the group of posterior mesodermal genes identified in (1) and (2). All tissues are dissected using tungsten needles. We first dissected dorsal tissue above the archenteron from late gastrula to early neurula. To loosen tissue, we treated the dissected dorsal explant in a 1% cysteine solution (pH 7.4) and removed the neuroectodermal layer. Anterior mesoderm was dissected corresponding to about the anterior one-third of the archenteron roof, and the rest was collected as posterior mesoderm. The posterior mesodermal explant was dissected into notochord and somites, following a clearly visible border between the two tissues. The accuracy of all dissection was confirmed by RT-PCR of marker genes.
Project description:XBP transcription factors are well-known regulators of the the unfolded protein response and are required for plasma cell differentiation. However, recent studies have shown that the XBP1 gene is also expressed in the developing notochord of Ciona and various vertebrates, and to date its role in the formation of this organ is largely uncharacterized. We identified putative targets of Ci-XBP1 through a microarray screen, using RNAs extracted from embryos expressing mutant forms of this transcriptional regulator in the notochord. We expressed in the Ciona notochord a dominant-negative version of Ci-XBP1 (XBP DBD::GFP) by cloning its DNA-binding domain (DBD) downstream of the Ci-Brachyury (Ci-Bra) promoter. We created a constitutive activator form of Ci-XBP by fusing its DBD to the VP16 transactivation domain (Bra>XBP DBD::VP16::GFP). These constructs were introduced into 1-cell stage embryos and grown to the initial tailbud (iTb) stage to identify Ci-XBP notochord target genes.