Abstract
In the basal chordate amphioxus (Branchiostoma), somites extend the full length of the body. The anteriormost somites segment during the gastrula and neurula stages from dorsolateral grooves of the archenteron. The remaining ones pinch off, one at a time, from the tail bud. These posterior somites appear to be homologous to those of vertebrates, even though the latter pinch off from the anterior end of bands of presomitic mesoderm rather than directly from the tail bud. To gain insights into the evolution of mesodermal segmentation in chordates, we determined the expression of ten genes in nascent amphioxus somites. Five (Uncx4.1, NeuroD/atonal-related, IrxA, Pcdhδ2-17/18, and Hey1) are expressed in stripes in the dorsolateral mesoderm at the gastrula stage and in the tail bud while three (Paraxis, Lcx, and Axin) are expressed in the posterior mesendoderm at the gastrula and neurula stages and in the tail bud at later stages. Expression of two genes (Pbx and OligA) suggests roles in the anterior somites that may be unrelated to initial segmentation. Together with previous data, our results indicate that, with the exception that Engrailed is only segmentally expressed in the anterior somites, the genetic mechanisms controlling formation of both the anterior and posterior somites are probably largely identical. Thus, the fundamental pathways for mesodermal segmentation involving Notch–Delta, Wnt/β-catenin, and Fgf signaling were already in place in the common ancestor of amphioxus and vertebrates although budding of somites from bands of presomitic mesoderm exhibiting waves of expression of Notch, Wnt, and Fgf target genes was likely a vertebrate novelty. Given the conservation of segmentation gene expression between amphioxus and vertebrate somites, we propose that the clock mechanism may have been established in the basal chordate, while the wavefront evolved later in the vertebrate lineage.
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Acknowledgements
We thank John Lawrence, Susan Bell, and the staff of the University of South Florida for providing laboratory space during the summer breeding season of amphioxus. This work was supported by an National Science Fund (NSF) predoctoral fellowship to S. L. Kaltenbach and by NSF grants Grant IBN 02-3617 to L. Z. H. and IBN 04-16292 to L. Z. H. and N. D. Holland.
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Beaster-Jones, L., Kaltenbach, S.L., Koop, D. et al. Expression of somite segmentation genes in amphioxus: a clock without a wavefront?. Dev Genes Evol 218, 599–611 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-008-0257-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-008-0257-5