Apr, 2003
Nuclear localization of beta-catenin in vegetal pole cells during early embryogenesis of the starfish Asterina pectinifera
DEVELOPMENT GROWTH & DIFFERENTIATION
- ,
- ,
- ,
- ,
- ,
- Volume
- 45
- Number
- 2
- First page
- 121
- Last page
- 128
- Language
- English
- Publishing type
- Research paper (scientific journal)
- DOI
- 10.1034/j.1600-0854.2004.00681.x
- Publisher
- WILEY-BLACKWELL
Recently, beta-catenin has been reported to control the expression of morphogenetic genes through the Wnt signaling pathway in invertebrate embryogenesis. In this study, the distribution pattern of beta-catenin during starfish embryogenesis was investigated using immunohistochemistry. In 16-cell stage embryos, beta-catenin began to accumulate in some nuclei at the vegetal pole. During the early cleavage stage, the cells expressing nuclear beta-catenin increased in number in the vegetal pole region of the embryos, and the beta-catenin signal increased in intensity in each nucleus. At the blastula stage, signal for beta-catenin was also found in the cytoplasm of the cells with nuclear beta-catenin. At the vegetal plate stage, almost all vegetal plate cells expressed beta-catenin in both the nucleus and cytoplasm. When the embryos developed to early gastrulae, cells with nuclear beta-catenin were restricted to the archenteron tip, and the signal gradually faded in later stages. The localization and temporal change of beta-catenin expression suggests that beta-catenin has a pivotal role in archenteron formation in starfish embryos.
- Link information
- ID information
-
- DOI : 10.1034/j.1600-0854.2004.00681.x
- ISSN : 0012-1592
- eISSN : 1440-169X
- Pubmed ID : 12752500
- Web of Science ID : WOS:000182578200003