сWnt signaling modulation results in a change of the colony architecture in a hydrozoan

• Published in: Developmental biology 2019-12, Vol.456 (2), p.145-153
• Main Authors: Bagaeva, Tatiana S., Kupaeva, Daria M., Vetrova, Alexandra A., Kosevich, Igor A., Kraus, Yulia A., Kremnyov, Stanislav V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Body Patterning - genetics; Body Patterning - physiology; Body plan evolution; Cnidaria; Cnidaria - genetics; Cnidaria - metabolism; Colony; Dynamena pumila; Evo-Devo; Evolution, Molecular; Fetal Proteins - genetics; Fetal Proteins - metabolism; Hydrozoa - genetics; Hydrozoa - metabolism; Morphogenesis; Phylogeny; Signal Transduction; T-Box Domain Proteins - genetics; T-Box Domain Proteins - metabolism; Wnt; Wnt Proteins - metabolism; Wnt Signaling Pathway - genetics; Wnt Signaling Pathway - physiology
• ISSN: 0012-1606; 1095-564X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2019.08.019

At the polyp stage, most hydrozoan cnidarians form highly elaborate colonies with a variety of branching patterns, which makes them excellent models for studying the evolutionary mechanisms of body plan diversification. At the same time, molecular mechanisms underlying the robust patterning of the architecturally complex hydrozoan colonies remain unexplored. Using non-model hydrozoan Dynamena pumila we showed that the key components of the Wnt/β-catenin (cWnt) pathway (β-catenin, TCF) and the cWnt-responsive gene, brachyury 2, are involved in specification and patterning of the developing colony shoots. Strikingly, pharmacological modulation of the cWnt pathway leads to radical modification of the monopodially branching colony of Dynamena which acquire branching patterns typical for colonies of other hydrozoan species. Our results suggest that modulation of the cWnt signaling is the driving force promoting the evolution of the vast variety of the body plans in hydrozoan colonies and offer an intriguing possibility that the involvement of the cWnt pathway in the regulation of branching morphogenesis might represent an ancestral feature predating the cnidarian-bilaterian split. [Display omitted] •cWnt activity is necessary for the patterning of spatially complex colonies of marine hydrozoans.•Upregulated cWnt suppresses the formation of the upright shoots but not of the horizontal stolons.•Brachyury2 is an early specification agent for hydranths during formation of colony modules.•Fine-tuning of cWnt signalling is likely driving the evolution of hydrozoan colony organization.