PUBLICATION
Zebrafish embryonic explants undergo genetically encoded self-assembly
- Authors
- Schauer, A., Pinheiro, D., Hauschild, R., Heisenberg, C.P.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-200422-34
- Date
- 2020
- Source
- eLIFE 9: (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp
- Keywords
- developmental biology, regenerative medicine, stem cells, zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Blastoderm/transplantation
- Body Patterning
- Embryonic Development/genetics
- Embryonic Development/physiology*
- Mesoderm/embryology
- Morphogenesis
- Nodal Protein/physiology
- Signal Transduction/physiology
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- PubMed
- 32250246 Full text @ Elife
Citation
Schauer, A., Pinheiro, D., Hauschild, R., Heisenberg, C.P. (2020) Zebrafish embryonic explants undergo genetically encoded self-assembly. eLIFE. 9:.
Abstract
Embryonic stem cell cultures are thought to self-organize into embryoid bodies, able to undergo symmetry-breaking, germ layer specification and even morphogenesis. Yet, it is unclear how to reconcile this remarkable self-organization capacity with classical experiments demonstrating key roles for extrinsic biases by maternal factors and/or extraembryonic tissues in embryogenesis. Here, we show that zebrafish embryonic tissue explants, prepared prior to germ layer induction and lacking extraembryonic tissues, can specify all germ layers and form a seemingly complete mesendoderm anlage. Importantly, explant organization requires polarized inheritance of maternal factors from dorsal-marginal regions of the blastoderm. Moreover, induction of endoderm and head-mesoderm, which require peak Nodal-signaling levels, is highly variable in explants, reminiscent of embryos with reduced Nodal signals from the extraembryonic tissues. Together, these data suggest that zebrafish explants do not undergo bona-fide self-organization, but rather display features of genetically encoded self-assembly, where intrinsic genetic programs control the emergence of order.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping