Seahorses are a hallmark of specialized morphological features due to their elongated prehensile tail.However,the underlying genomic grounds of seahorse tail development remain elusive.Herein,we evaluated the roles of...Seahorses are a hallmark of specialized morphological features due to their elongated prehensile tail.However,the underlying genomic grounds of seahorse tail development remain elusive.Herein,we evaluated the roles of essential genes from the Wnt gene family for the tail developmental process in the lined seahorse(Hippocampus erectus).Comparative genomic analysis revealed that the Wnt gene family is conserved in seahorses.The expression profiles and in situ hybridization suggested that Wnt5a,Wnt8a,and Wnt11 may participate in seahorse tail development.Like in other teleosts,Wnt5a and Wntll were found to regulate the development of the tail axial mesoderm and tail somitic mesoderm,respectively.However,a significantly extended expression period of Wnt8a during seahorse tail development was observed.Signaling pathway analysis further showed that Wnt5a up-regulated the expression of the tail axial mesoderm gene(Shh),while interaction analysis indicated that Wnt8a could promote the expression of Wntll.In summary,our results indicate that the special extended expression period of Wnt8a might promote caudal tail axis formation,which contributes to the formation of the elongated tail of the seahorse.展开更多
基金This work was supported by the K.C.Wong Education Foundation,the National Natural Science Foundation of China(nos.41825013,41706178,41576145,41806189,32000350)the China postdoctoral science foundation grant(no.2019M663151),the Guangdong Special Support Program of Youth Scientific and Technological Innovation(2017TQ04Z269)We are also grateful to Wenqi Hu for help with cell culture.
文摘Seahorses are a hallmark of specialized morphological features due to their elongated prehensile tail.However,the underlying genomic grounds of seahorse tail development remain elusive.Herein,we evaluated the roles of essential genes from the Wnt gene family for the tail developmental process in the lined seahorse(Hippocampus erectus).Comparative genomic analysis revealed that the Wnt gene family is conserved in seahorses.The expression profiles and in situ hybridization suggested that Wnt5a,Wnt8a,and Wnt11 may participate in seahorse tail development.Like in other teleosts,Wnt5a and Wntll were found to regulate the development of the tail axial mesoderm and tail somitic mesoderm,respectively.However,a significantly extended expression period of Wnt8a during seahorse tail development was observed.Signaling pathway analysis further showed that Wnt5a up-regulated the expression of the tail axial mesoderm gene(Shh),while interaction analysis indicated that Wnt8a could promote the expression of Wntll.In summary,our results indicate that the special extended expression period of Wnt8a might promote caudal tail axis formation,which contributes to the formation of the elongated tail of the seahorse.
