Localization and expression pattern of type I postplasmic mRNAs in embryos of the ascidian Halocynthia roretzi
Section snippets
Results and discussion
It has been suggested that maternal factors localized to the posterior-vegetal cytoplasm (PVC) in Halocynthia roretzi eggs play important roles in control of cleavage pattern, determination of the anterior–posterior axis, autonomous specification of muscle fate, and generation of differences in responsiveness to inductive signals in mesenchyme and notochord precursor blastomeres. These functions were revealed in micromanipulative experiments in which PVC was removed and transplanted (Nishida,
In situ hybridization
Whole-mount in situ hybridization was performed as described Miya et al., 1994, Miya et al., 1997. The HrGLUT and HrPEN-1 antisense RNA probes were synthesized using a full-length cDNA as template. The HrPEM-3 probe was transcribed from 1083–3690 bp fragment of HrPEM-3 cDNA. The HrPEN-2 probe was generated from 1522–4015 bp fragment of HrPEN-2 cDNA. Most embryos were then dehydrated in a graded series of ethanol and rendered transparent with a 1:2 mixture (v/v) of benzyl alcohol and benzyl
Acknowledgements
We thank T. Kawashima (Kyoto University) and Y. Kohara (National Institute of Genetics) for providing MAGEST plasmids. We also thank members of the Asamushi Marine Biological Station and the Otsuchi Marine Research Center for help in collecting live ascidian adults, and members of the Misaki Marine Biological Laboratory for help in maintaining them. This work was supported by the Research for the Future Program of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, and by Grants-in-Aid from the
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Bi-polarized translation of ascidian maternal mRNA determinant pem-1 associated with regulators of the translation machinery on cortical Endoplasmic Reticulum (cER)
2011, Developmental BiologyCitation Excerpt :Most interestingly, a monolayer of ER harboring specific RNAs and proteins—the cortical Endoplasmic Reticulum (cER)—closely associates with parts of the Plasma Membrane (PM). The presence of important cER-specific RNAs has been well documented in maize and rice endosperm cells (Wang et al., 2008), in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Paquin and Chartrand, 2008; Schmid et al., 2006), and in the large oocytes of 3 species of ascidians (Ciona intestinalis/Ci, Phallusia mammillata/Pm, Halocynthia roretzi/Hr) (Nakamura et al., 2003; Paix et al., 2009; Prodon et al., 2005; Sardet et al., 2003). In these marine urochordates the egg cER network undergoes stereotyped reorganizations and polarizations required for axis formation and development into simple tadpoles (Prodon et al., 2007; Roegiers et al., 1995; Sardet et al., 2005, 2007).
Cortical anchorages and cell type segregations of maternal postplasmic/PEM RNAs in ascidians
2009, Developmental BiologyLocalized PEM mRNA and Protein Are Involved in Cleavage-Plane Orientation and Unequal Cell Divisions in Ascidians
2007, Current BiologyCitation Excerpt :Some maternal mRNAs are localized to the PVC and CAB. These mRNAs are referred to as type I postplasmic/PEM mRNAs, and to date about a dozen have been identified ([17–20] and reviewed in [6, 21]). Second, the CAB contains an electron-dense matrix similar to germplasm [16], which has been observed in Xenopus[22], Drosophila[23], and C. elegans[4].