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| Status |
Public on Mar 01, 2012 |
| Title |
Developmental milestones punctuate gene expression in the Caenorhabditis embryo |
| Organisms |
Caenorhabditis briggsae; Caenorhabditis elegans; Caenorhabditis remanei; Caenorhabditis brenneri; Caenorhabditis japonica |
| Experiment type |
Expression profiling by array
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| Summary |
The complex process by which a metazoan develops from a single cell to a multi-cellular differentiated organism is typically organized by biologists into stages. For example, in the chordate embryo, the gastrula, the neurula and the tail-bud constitute characteristic processes. A debate runs through the history of embryology questioning whether such stages hint at the modularity of embryonic development1-3, or rather, that “stages exist in the mind of the biologist, and not in the larva”4 or embryo. It thus remains unclear which position accurately reflects the nature of development on a molecular, gene regulatory level. Here we demonstrate that development of five Caenorhabditis species proceeds through multiple distinct stages in which the transcriptome is resistant to differences in species-specific developmental timings. By comparing the complete protein-coding transcriptomes of individually staged embryos across ten morphological markers, we found that time-invariant stages occur throughout development, including a stage we identify as the nematode phylotypic stage. Between such stages, embryos follow transitory states characterized by an acceleration of transcriptional activity. Therefore, on a molecular level, development cannot be viewed as a single process continuously proceeding through time, but rather as a succession of discontinuous stages, or ‘milestones’. Comparing the nematode developmental transcriptome with that of the chordate we report on the macro evolution of a milestone by duplication and diversification. This modular view of development by milestones will allow for a more complete understanding of how the functional organization of the embryo has influenced the evolution of animal morphology and diversity.
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| Overall design |
150 microarrays, across 10 morphological markers of C. remanei, C. briggsae, C. brenneri, C. elegans and C. japonica wildtype embryos. For each of the two timecourse independent triplicates were generated.
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| Contributor(s) |
Yanai I, Levin M, Hashimshony T, Wagner F |
| Citation(s) |
22560298 |
| |
| Submission date |
Aug 16, 2011 |
| Last update date |
May 15, 2012 |
| Contact name |
Itai Yanai |
| E-mail(s) |
yanai@technion.ac.il
|
| Organization name |
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
|
| Department |
Biology
|
| Lab |
Yanai
|
| Street address |
Technion City
|
| City |
Haifa |
| ZIP/Postal code |
30200 |
| Country |
Israel |
| |
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| Platforms (5)
|
| GPL14142 |
Custom Agilent C. brenneri expression microarray |
| GPL14143 |
Custom Agilent C. briggsae expression microarray |
| GPL14144 |
Custom Agilent C. elegans expression microarray |
| GPL14145 |
Custom Agilent C. japonica expression microarray |
| GPL14146 |
Custom Agilent C. remanei expression microarray |
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| Samples (150)
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| Relations |
| BioProject |
PRJNA145833 |
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