TY - JOUR
T1 - Conservation, loss, and redeployment of Wnt ligands in protostomes
T2 - implications for understanding the evolution of segment formation
AU - Janssen, Ralf
AU - Le Gouar, Martine
AU - Pechmann, Matthias
AU - Poulin, Francis
AU - Bolognesi, Renata
AU - Schwager, Evelyn E
AU - Hopfen, Corinna
AU - Colbourne, John K
AU - Budd, Graham E
AU - Brown, Susan J
AU - Prpic, Nikola-Michael
AU - Kosiol, Carolin
AU - Vervoort, Michel
AU - Damen, Wim G M
AU - Balavoine, Guillaume
AU - McGregor, Alistair P
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - The Wnt genes encode secreted glycoprotein ligands that regulate a wide range of developmental processes, including axis elongation and segmentation. There are thirteen subfamilies of Wnt genes in metazoans and this gene diversity appeared early in animal evolution. The loss of Wnt subfamilies appears to be common in insects, but little is known about the Wnt repertoire in other arthropods, and moreover the expression and function of these genes have only been investigated in a few protostomes outside the relatively Wnt-poor model species Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans. To investigate the evolution of this important gene family more broadly in protostomes, we surveyed the Wnt gene diversity in the crustacean Daphnia pulex, the chelicerates Ixodes scapularis and Achaearanea tepidariorum, the myriapod Glomeris marginata and the annelid Platynereis dumerilii. We also characterised Wnt gene expression in the latter three species, and further investigated expression of these genes in the beetle Tribolium castaneum.
AB - The Wnt genes encode secreted glycoprotein ligands that regulate a wide range of developmental processes, including axis elongation and segmentation. There are thirteen subfamilies of Wnt genes in metazoans and this gene diversity appeared early in animal evolution. The loss of Wnt subfamilies appears to be common in insects, but little is known about the Wnt repertoire in other arthropods, and moreover the expression and function of these genes have only been investigated in a few protostomes outside the relatively Wnt-poor model species Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans. To investigate the evolution of this important gene family more broadly in protostomes, we surveyed the Wnt gene diversity in the crustacean Daphnia pulex, the chelicerates Ixodes scapularis and Achaearanea tepidariorum, the myriapod Glomeris marginata and the annelid Platynereis dumerilii. We also characterised Wnt gene expression in the latter three species, and further investigated expression of these genes in the beetle Tribolium castaneum.
KW - Animals
KW - Annelida
KW - Arthropods
KW - Evolution, Molecular
KW - Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
KW - Multigene Family
KW - Phylogeny
KW - Sequence Analysis, DNA
KW - Synteny
KW - Wnt Proteins
U2 - 10.1186/1471-2148-10-374
DO - 10.1186/1471-2148-10-374
M3 - Article
C2 - 21122121
SN - 1471-2148
VL - 10
JO - BMC Evolutionary Biology
JF - BMC Evolutionary Biology
M1 - 374
ER -