The Role of the Maternal Factors in Ascidian Development andEvolution

母体因素在海鞘发育和进化中的作用

• 批准号: 9728552
• 负责人: Billie Swalla
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-03-01 至 2000-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9728552&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Role; Maternal; Factors; Ascidian; Development

This proposal describes experiments done with ascidian embryos, the simplest chordate embryos known. These embryos develop in a very similiar manner to other chordate embryos, including humans. The patterns of early cleavage, axis formation and gastrulation are well described in ascidians and a number of embryological experiments have shown that maternal factors in the egg are important in specifying tissues in the larvae. Dr. Swalla's lab has used two closely related ascidian species with very different larval phenotypes to isolate and characterize maternal factors necessary for normal larval development. They have isolated three novel genes that are present in the species that has a tailed tadpole larva and are absent in the species that has a tailless larva. Two of these genes are likely to be transcription factors that bind DNA and turn genes off and on, while the other is likely to be a signalling molecule involved in cell-cell communication. The experiments described in this proposal will investigate the role these proteins may play in development by characterizing the localization of the proteins in the eggs and embryos with antibodies and by examining possible protein-protein interactions. These results will give insight into how maternal proteins may be involved in developmental processes and cell specification during embryonic development. A long term goal of this laboratory is to then find similiar genes in vertebrate embryos and see what their role might be in these embryos.

该提案描述了用海鞘胚胎进行的实验，海鞘胚胎是已知的最简单的脊索动物胚胎。这些胚胎的发育方式与其他脊索动物胚胎（包括人类）非常相似。早期卵裂、轴形成和原肠胚形成的模式在海鞘中得到了很好的描述，并且许多胚胎学实验表明，卵中的母体因素对于确定幼虫的组织非常重要。斯瓦拉博士的实验室使用了两种密切相关的幼虫表型截然不同的海鞘物种来分离和表征正常幼虫发育所需的母体因素。他们分离出了三个新基因，这些基因存在于有尾蝌蚪幼虫的物种中，而在无尾蝌蚪幼虫的物种中不存在。其中两个基因可能是结合 DNA 并打开和关闭基因的转录因子，而另一个可能是参与细胞间通讯的信号分子。该提案中描述的实验将通过用抗体表征蛋白质在卵子和胚胎中的定位以及检查可能的蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用来研究这些蛋白质在发育中可能发挥的作用。这些结果将深入了解母体蛋白质如何参与胚胎发育过程中的发育过程和细胞规范。该实验室的长期目标是在脊椎动物胚胎中找到相似的基因，并了解它们在这些胚胎中可能发挥的作用。