Expression and function of a starfish Otx ortholog, AmOtx: a conserved role for Otx proteins in endoderm development that predates divergence of the eleutherozoa
Abstract
The sea urchin orthodenticle (Otx)-related transcription factor is an early activator of other endomesodermally expressed transcription factors. Its normal function is required for the development of the archenteron and to lock cells into endomesodermal fate. To determine if this is a basal Otx function in echinoderms we have studied the role of an Otx ortholog in a starfish, Asterina miniata. The patterns of AmOtx expression are found to be similar, in many details, to those reported for other indirectly developing echinoderms and hemichordates, suggestive of a conserved function both in endoderm development and ciliary band formation in these two phyla. When downstream targets of the AmOtx protein are suppressed using a dominant engrailed repressor strategy, embryos fail to develop the endodermal component of the archenteron, though initial phases of mesoderm development proceed normally. The function of Otx proteins in endodermal development at least predated the evolution of the free-living echinoderms (Eleutherozoa).
Additional Information
© 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Received 25 April 2003; received in revised form 23 June 2003; accepted 5 August 2003. We thank Pat Leahy and the staff at the Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory for maintaining starfish and the staff at the Caltech Beckman Institute Arraying facility for preparing cDNA library filters. We are grateful to Takuya Minokawa and Pei Yun Lee for reviews and discussions of the manuscript. Miki Yun helped with sequencing and plasmid DNA preparation. We also thank Magdalena Bak for the kind gift of the anti-acetylated tubulin antibody and Martin Basch and Andy Cameron for help with fluorescent microscopy. This work was supported by NASA/Ames NAG2-1587 and NCRR (RR-15044) to EHD.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 63563
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.mod.2003.08.002
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160112-080814893
- NAG2-1587
- NASA
- RR-15044
- National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)
- Created
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2016-01-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field