Embryonic origin and serial homology of gill arches and paired fins in the skate, Leucoraja erinacea.

Paired fins are a defining feature of the jawed vertebrate body plan, but their evolutionary origin remains unresolved. Gegenbaur proposed that paired fins evolved as gill arch serial homologues, but this hypothesis is now widely discounted, owing largely to the presumed distinct embryonic origins of these structures from mesoderm and neural crest, respectively. Here, we use cell lineage tracing to test the embryonic origin of the pharyngeal and paired fin skeleton in the skate (Leucoraja erinacea). We find that while the jaw and hyoid arch skeleton derive from neural crest, and the pectoral fin skeleton from mesoderm, the gill arches are of dual origin, receiving contributions from both germ layers. We propose that gill arches and paired fins are serially homologous as derivatives of a continuous, dual-origin mesenchyme with common skeletogenic competence, and that this serial homology accounts for their parallel anatomical organization and shared responses to axial patterning signals

Gene network analyses support subfunctionalization hypothesis for duplicated hsp70 genes in the Antarctic clam

Funder: Natural Environment Research Council; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000270Funder: Wolfson College, University of Cambridge (GB)Abstract: A computationally predicted gene regulatory network (GRN), generated from mantle-specific gene expression profiles in the Antarctic clam Laternula elliptica, was interrogated to test the regulation and interaction of duplicated inducible hsp70 paralogues. hsp70A and hsp70B were identified in the GRN with each paralogue falling into unique submodules that were linked together by a single shared second neighbour. Annotations associated with the clusters in each submodule suggested that hsp70A primarily shares regulatory relationships with genes encoding ribosomal proteins, where it may have a role in protecting the ribosome under stress. hsp70B, on the other hand, interacted with a suite of genes involved in signalling pathways, including four transcription factors, cellular response to stress and the cytoskeleton. Given the contrasting submodules and associated annotations of the two hsp70 paralogues, the GRN analysis suggests that each gene is carrying out additional separate functions, as well as being involved in the traditional chaperone heat stress response, and therefore supports the hypothesis that subfunctionalization has occurred after gene duplication. The GRN was specifically produced from experiments investigating biomineralization; however, this study shows the utility of such data for investigating multiple questions concerning gene duplications, interactions and putative functions in a non-model species

Ectodermal Wnt signaling, cell fate determination, and polarity of the skate gill arch skeleton

Funding Information: With thanks to Dr Kate Criswell and Dr Christine Hirschberger for advice, and to the University of Cambridge Wellcome PhD. Programme in Developmental Mechanisms. The authors were funded by a Wellcome PhD studentship (214953/Z/18/Z) to JMR, and by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF130182 and URF\R\191007) and Royal Society Research Grant (RG140377) to JAG. For the purpose of Open Access, the authors have applied a CC BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Evolutionary conservation and divergence of the transcriptional regulation of bivalve shell secretion across life history stages

Acknowledgements and Funding Information We are grateful to Andrew Gillis for use for paraffin histology and microscopy equipment and enthusiastic support of this work and the Rothera marine team for collecting the adult Laternula elliptica broodstock. This work was supported by UKRI Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Core Funding to the British Antarctic Survey, a DTG Studentship (Project Reference: NE/J500173/1) and a Junior Research Fellowship to V.A.S. from Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. Review History: https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway/wos/peer-review/10.1098/rsos.221022/Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Conserved and unique transcriptional features of pharyngeal arches in the skate (Leucoraja erinacea) and evolution of the jaw

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Hirschberger, C., Sleight, V. A., Criswell, K. E., Clark, S. J., & Gillis, J. A. Conserved and unique transcriptional features of pharyngeal arches in the skate (Leucoraja erinacea) and evolution of the jaw. Molecular Biology and Evolution, (2021): msab123, https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab123The origin of the jaw is a long-standing problem in vertebrate evolutionary biology. Classical hypotheses of serial homology propose that the upper and lower jaw evolved through modifications of dorsal and ventral gill arch skeletal elements, respectively. If the jaw and gill arches are derived members of a primitive branchial series, we predict that they would share common developmental patterning mechanisms. Using candidate and RNAseq/differential gene expression analyses, we find broad conservation of dorsoventral patterning mechanisms within the developing mandibular, hyoid and gill arches of a cartilaginous fish, the skate (Leucoraja erinacea). Shared features include expression of genes encoding members of the ventralising BMP and endothelin signalling pathways and their effectors, the joint markers nkx3.2 and gdf5 and pro-chondrogenic transcription factor barx1, and the dorsal territory marker pou3f3. Additionally, we find that mesenchymal expression of eya1/six1 is an ancestral feature of the mandibular arch of jawed vertebrates, while differences in notch signalling distinguish the mandibular and gill arches in skate. Comparative transcriptomic analyses of mandibular and gill arch tissues reveal additional genes differentially expressed along the dorsoventral axis of the pharyngeal arches, including scamp5 as a novel marker of the dorsal mandibular arch, as well as distinct transcriptional features of mandibular and gill arch muscle progenitors and developing gill buds. Taken together, our findings reveal conserved patterning mechanisms in the pharyngeal arches of jawed vertebrates, consistent with serial homology of their skeletal derivatives, as well as unique transcriptional features that may underpin distinct jaw and gill arch morphologies.This work was supported by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership studentship to CH, by a Wolfson College Junior Research Fellowship and MBL Whitman Early Career Fellowship to VAS, and by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF130182 and URF\R\191007), Royal Society Research Grant (RG140377) and University of Cambridge Sir Isaac Newton Trust Grant (14.23z) to JAG

An Antarctic molluscan biomineralisation tool-kit

Acknowledgements VAS was funded by a NERC DTG studentship (Project Reference: NE/J500173/1) to the British Antarctic Survey. MSC was financed by NERC core funding to the British Antarctic Survey. We would like to thank Jeremy Skepper for advising us on TEM procedures and processing the mantle tissue samples prior to TEM, Elizabeth M. Harper for advice on Laternula elliptica mantle anatomy for the schematic, Jamie Oliver for technical help with digitising the schematic, Deborah M. Power for in situ hybridisation advice, Valerie J. Smith for advice on immunology and histology, Lloyd S. Peck for vesicle discussions and critical reading of the manuscript and the dive team at Rothera research station, Antarctica for support in animal collection. Diving oversight was provided by the NERC National Facility for Scientific Diving, Oban.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Characterisation of the mantle transcriptome and biomineralisation genes in the blunt-gaper clam, Mya truncata

Members of the Myidae family are ecologically and economically important, but there is currently very little molecular data on these species. The present study sequenced and assembled the mantle transcriptome of Mya truncata from the North West coast of Scotland and identified candidate biomineralisation genes. RNA-Seq reads were assembled to create 20,106 contigs in a de novo transciptome, 18.81% of which were assigned putative functions using BLAST sequence similarity searching (cuttoff E-value 1E − 10). The most highly expressed genes were compared to the Antarctic clam (Laternula elliptica) and showed that many of the dominant biological functions (muscle contraction, energy production, biomineralisation) in the mantle were conserved. There were however, differences in the constitutive expression of heat shock proteins, which were possibly due to the M. truncata sampling location being at a relatively low latitude, and hence relatively warm, in terms of the global distribution of the species. Phylogenetic analyses of the Tyrosinase proteins from M. truncata showed a gene expansion which was absent in L. elliptica. The tissue distribution expression patterns of putative biomineralisation genes were investigated using quantitative PCR, all genes showed a mantle specific expression pattern supporting their hypothesised role in shell secretion. The present study provides some preliminary insights into how clams from different environments – temperate versus polar – build their shells. In addition, the transcriptome data provides a valuable resource for future comparative studies investigating biomineralisation

Computationally predicted gene regulatory networks in molluscan biomineralization identify extracellular matrix production and ion transportation pathways

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Prof Peter Kille for constructive comments on this work. Funding This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council Core Funding to the British Antarctic Survey, a DTG Studentship (Project Reference: NE/J500173/1) to V.A.S. and a Junior Research Fellowship to V.A.S from Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. Conflict of Interest: none declared.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Shell matrix proteins of the clam, Mya truncata: Roles beyond shell formation through proteomic study

Mya truncata, a soft shell clam, is presented as a new model to study biomineralization through a proteomics approach. In this study, the shell and mantle tissue were analysed in order to retrieve knowledge about the secretion of shell matrix proteins (SMPs). Out of 67 and 127 shell and mantle proteins respectively, 16 were found in both shell and mantle. Bioinformatic analysis of SMP sequences for domain prediction revealed the presence of several new domains such as fucolectin tachylectin-4 pentraxin-1 (FTP), scavenger receptor, alpha-2-macroglobulin (α2 M), lipocalin and myosin tail along with previously reported SMP domains such as chitinase, carbonic anhydrase, tyrosinase, sushi, and chitin binding. Interestingly, these newly predicted domains are attributed with molecular functions other than biomineralization. These findings suggest that shells may not only act as protective armour from predatory action, but could also actively be related to other functions such as immunity. In this context, the roles of SMPs in biomineralization need to be looked in a new perspective