<i>Hox</i>
            genes control homocercal caudal fin development and evolution

Cumplido, Nicolás; Arratia, Gloria; Desvignes, Thomas; Muñoz-Sánchez, Salomé; Postlethwait, John H.; Allende, Miguel L.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adj5991

Cited by 5 publications

References 88 publications

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Adult caudal fin shape is imprinted in the embryonic fin fold

Surette,

Donahue,

Robinson

et al. 2024

Preprint

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SummaryAppendage shape is formed during development (and re-formed during regeneration) according to spatial and temporal cues that orchestrate local cellular morphogenesis. The caudal fin is the primary appendage used for propulsion in most fish species, and exhibits a range of distinct morphologies adapted for different swimming strategies, however the molecular mechanisms responsible for generating these diverse shapes remain mostly unknown. In zebrafish, caudal fins display a forked shape, with longer supportive bony rays at the periphery and shortest rays at the center. Here, we show that a premature, transient pulse ofsonic hedgehog a (shha)overexpression during late embryonic development results in excess proliferation and growth of the central rays, causing the adult caudal fin to grow into a triangular, truncate shape. Both global and regional ectopicshhaoverexpression are sufficient to alter fin shape, and forked shape may be rescued by subsequent treatment with an antagonist of the canonical Shh pathway. The induced truncate fins show a decreased fin ray number and fail to form the hypural diastema that normally separates the dorsal and ventral fin lobes. While forked fins regenerate their original forked morphology, truncate fins regenerate truncate, suggesting that positional memory of the fin rays can be permanently altered by a transient treatment during embryogenesis. Ray finned fish have evolved a wide spectrum of caudal fin morphologies, ranging from truncate to forked, and the current work offers insights into the developmental mechanisms that may underlie this shape diversity.

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Adult caudal fin shape is imprinted in the embryonic fin fold

Surette,

Donahue,

Robinson

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Epigenomics of embryogenesis in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus)

Aramburu,

Pardo,

Jimenez-Gonzalez

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Embryogenesis is the crucial first step of ontogeny, where an organism with a complex body plan arises from a single undifferentiated totipotent cell. This process is orchestrated by dynamic changes in transcriptional regulation, influenced by chromatin accessibility and nucleotide and histone modifications constituting epigenetic signals enabling access to transcription factors. The epigenomic regulation of embryogenesis has been studied in model fishes, but little attention has been paid to farmed fish - where traits of importance to aquaculture rely on early developmental processes. This study, framed within the AQUA-FAANG consortium, reports a comprehensive regulatory atlas of embryogenesis for turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), a farmed flatfish representing order Pleuronectiformes. 14,560 genes were expressed in the embryonic transcriptome with > 90% showing differential expression across consecutive stages. By integrating multi-histone ChIP-Seq marks with ATAC-Seq, we built a genome-wide chromatin state model, defining promoter and enhancer activity across stages. Transcription factor binding motif (TFBM) analysis of differentially active promoters and enhancers revealed dynamism in regulated gene functions, with more than half the TFBM enriched in a single developmental transition. Significant shifts in chromatin accessibility occurred across stages, most notably during the transition from shield to early segmentation, suggesting a profound chromatin reorganization underpins somitogenesis and early organ development. Most changes in chromatin accessibility across stages did not involve promoter regions of differentially expressed genes, suggesting a trend of promoter accessibility preceding gene transcriptional activity. Comparative analyses with zebrafish revealed a global transcriptomic correlation of single copy orthologs at matched stages of embryogenesis across species. While conserved expression dynamics were revealed for many orthologous Hox genes, notable cross-species differences were identified from before zygotic genome activation leading up to hatching. This multi-omics investigation provides a novel atlas of non-coding regulatory elements controlling turbot development, with key applications for flatfish biology and enhancing sustainable aquaculture.

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Anterior-posterior constraint on Hedgehog signaling by hhip in teleost fin elaboration

Tanaka,

Okayama,

Urakawa

et al. 2024

Development

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Pectoral fins, the anterior paired fins in fish, have enhanced maneuvering abilities due to morphological changes. Teleosts have fewer radial bones in their pectoral fins than basal species, resulting in more elaborate fins. The mechanism behind this radial constraint change in teleosts is unclear. Here, we found that mutations in hhip, an antagonist of Hedgehog signaling, lead to an increase in radial bones in a localized region. The shh genes, ligands of Hedgehog signaling, were expressed coinciding with notable hhip expression specifically during early development. We suggest that a negative feedback effect of Hedgehog signaling by hhip regulates the constraint of the pectoral fin in zebrafish. Additionally, the expression reanalysis of Hhip-related genes implied that the notable hhip expression during early development was a characteristic of zebrafish, not observed in basal species. Region-specific expression of Hox13 genes indicated that hhip−/- zebrafish expanded the median region of the pectoral fin, analogous to the region with abundant radials in basal species. The data underscore potential morphological evolution through constrained diversity.

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Hox genes control homocercal caudal fin development and evolution

Cited by 5 publications

References 88 publications

Adult caudal fin shape is imprinted in the embryonic fin fold

Adult caudal fin shape is imprinted in the embryonic fin fold

Epigenomics of embryogenesis in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus)

Anterior-posterior constraint on Hedgehog signaling by hhip in teleost fin elaboration

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