Light-modulated neural control of sphincter regulation in the evolution of through-gut.

The development of a continuous digestive tract, or through-gut, represents a key milestone in bilaterian evolution. However, the regulatory mechanisms in ancient bilaterians (urbilaterians) are not well understood. Our study, using larval sea urchins as a model, reveals a sophisticated system that prevents the simultaneous opening of the pylorus and anus, entry and exit points of the gut. This regulation is influenced by external light, with blue light affecting the pylorus via serotonergic neurons and both blue and longer wavelengths controlling the anus through cholinergic and dopaminergic neurons. These findings provide new insights into the neural orchestration of sphincter control in a simplified through-gut, which includes the esophagus, stomach, and intestine. Here, we propose that the emergence of the earliest urbilaterian through-gut was accompanied by the evolution of neural systems regulating sphincters in response to light, shedding light on the functional regulation of primordial digestive systems.

Assembly of continuous high-resolution draft genome sequence of Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus using long-read sequencing.

The update of the draft genome assembly of sea urchin, Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus, which is widely studied in East Asia as a model organism of early development, was performed using Oxford nanopore long-read sequencing. The updated assembly provided ~600-Mb genome sequences divided into 2,163 contigs with N50 = 516 kb. BUSCO completeness score and transcriptome model mapping ratio (TMMR) of the present assembly were obtained as 96.5% and 77.8%, respectively. These results were more continuous with higher resolution than those by the previous version of H. pulcherrimus draft genome, HpulGenome_v1, where the number of scaffolds = 16,251 with a total of ~100 Mb, N50 = 143 kb, BUSCO completeness score = 86.1%, and TMMR = 55.4%. The obtained genome contained 36,055 gene models that were consistent with those in other echinoderms. Additionally, two tandem repeat sequences of early histone gene locus containing 47 copies and 34 copies of all histone genes, and 185 of the homologous sequences of the interspecifically conserved region of the Ars insulator, ArsInsC, were obtained. These results provide further advance for genome-wide research of development, gene regulation, and intranuclear structural dynamics of multicellular organisms using H. pulcherrimus.

Nonmuscular Troponin-I is required for gastrulation in sea urchin embryos.

BACKGROUND: Gastrulation is one of the most important events in our lives (Barresi and Gilbert, 2020, Developmental Biology, 12th ed.). The molecular mechanisms of gastrulation in multicellular organisms are not yet fully understood, since many molecular, physical, and chemical factors are involved in the event. RESULTS: Here, we found that one of muscle components, Troponin-I (TnI), is expressed in future gut cells, which are not muscular cells at all, and regulates gastrulation in embryos of a sea urchin, Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus. When we block the function of TnI, the invagination was inhibited in spite that the gut-cell specifier gene is normally expressed. In addition, blocking myosin activity also induced incomplete gastrulation. CONCLUSION: These results strongly suggested that TnI regulates nonmuscular actin-myosin interactions during sea urchin gastrulation. So far, Troponin system is treated as specific only for muscle components, especially for striated muscle, but our data clearly show that TnI is involved in nonmuscular event. It is also reported that recent sensitive gene expression analysis revealed that Troponin genes are expressed in nonmuscular tissues in mammals (Ono et al., Sci Data, 2017;4:170105). These evidences propose the new evolutionary and functional scenario of the involvement of Troponin system in nonmuscular cell behaviors using actin-myosin system in bilaterians including human being.

Rx and its downstream factor, Musashi1, is required for establishment of the apical organ in sea urchin larvae.

Acetylcholine, a vital neurotransmitter, plays a multifarious role in the brain and peripheral nervous system of various organisms. Previous research has demonstrated the proximity of cholinergic neurons to serotonergic neurons in the apical organ of sea urchin embryos. While several transcription factors have been identified as playing a role in the development of serotonergic neurons in this region of a sea urchin, Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus, comparatively little is known about the specific transcription factors and their spatiotemporal expression patterns that regulate the development of cholinergic neurons. In this study, we establish the requirement of the transcription factor Rx for the development of cholinergic neurons in the apical organ of the species. Furthermore, we investigate the role of the RNA-binding protein Musashi1, known to be involved in neurogenesis, including cholinergic neurons in other organisms, and demonstrate that it is a downstream factor of Rx, and that choline acetyltransferase expression is suppressed in Musashi1 downregulated embryos. Our research also highlights the intricate network formed by neurons and other cells in and around the apical organ of sea urchin larvae through axons and dendrites, providing possibility for a systematic and complexed neural pattern like those of the brain in other organisms.

TrBase: A genome and transcriptome database of Temnopleurus reevesii.

Sea urchins have a long history as model organisms in biology, but their use in genetics is limited because of their long breeding cycle. In sea urchin genetics, genome editing technology was first established in Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus, whose genome has already been published. However, because this species also has a long breeding cycle, new model sea urchins that are more suitable for genetics have been sought. Here, we report a draft genome of another Western Pacific species, Temnopleurus reevesii, which we established as a new model sea urchin recently since this species has a comparable developmental process to other model sea urchins but a short breeding cycle of approximately half a year. The genome of T. reevesii was assembled into 28,742 scaffold sequences with an N50 length of 67.6 kb and an estimated genome size of 905.9 Mb. In the assembled genome, 27,064 genes were identified, 23,624 of which were expressed in at least one of the seven developmental stages. To provide genetic information, we constructed the genome database TrBase (https://cell-innovation.nig.ac.jp/Tree/). We also constructed the Western Pacific Sea Urchin Genome Database (WestPac-SUGDB) (https://cell-innovation.nig.ac.jp/WPAC/) with the aim of establishing a portal site for genetic information on sea urchins in the West Pacific. This site contains genomic information on two species, T. reevesii and H. pulcherrimus, and is equipped with homology search programs for comparing the two datasets. Therefore, TrBase and WestPac-SUGDB are expected to contribute not only to genetic research using sea urchins but also to comparative genomics and evolutionary research.

Planktonic sea urchin larvae change their swimming direction in response to strong photoirradiation.

To survive, organisms need to precisely respond to various environmental factors, such as light and gravity. Among these, light is so important for most life on Earth that light-response systems have become extraordinarily developed during evolution, especially in multicellular animals. A combination of photoreceptors, nervous system components, and effectors allows these animals to respond to light stimuli. In most macroscopic animals, muscles function as effectors responding to light, and in some microscopic aquatic animals, cilia play a role. It is likely that the cilia-based response was the first to develop and that it has been substituted by the muscle-based response along with increases in body size. However, although the function of muscle appears prominent, it is poorly understood whether ciliary responses to light are present and/or functional, especially in deuterostomes, because it is possible that these responses are too subtle to be observed, unlike muscle responses. Here, we show that planktonic sea urchin larvae reverse their swimming direction due to the inhibitory effect of light on the cholinergic neuron signaling>forward swimming pathway. We found that strong photoirradiation of larvae that stay on the surface of seawater immediately drives the larvae away from the surface due to backward swimming. When Opsin2, which is expressed in mesenchymal cells in larval arms, is knocked down, the larvae do not show backward swimming under photoirradiation. Although Opsin2-expressing cells are not neuronal cells, immunohistochemical analysis revealed that they directly attach to cholinergic neurons, which are thought to regulate forward swimming. These data indicate that light, through Opsin2, inhibits the activity of cholinergic signaling, which normally promotes larval forward swimming, and that the light-dependent ciliary response is present in deuterostomes. These findings shed light on how light-responsive tissues/organelles have been conserved and diversified during evolution.

Temnopleurus reevesii as a new sea urchin model in genetics.

Echinoderms, including sea urchins and starfish, have played important roles in cell, developmental and evolutionary biology research for more than a century. However, since most of them take a long time to mature sexually and their breeding seasons are limited, it has been difficult to obtain subsequent generations in the laboratory, resulting in them not being recognized as model organisms in recent genetics research. To overcome this issue, we maintained and obtained gametes from several nonmodel sea urchins in Japan and finally identified Temnopleurus reevesii as a suitable model for sea urchin genetics. Genomic and transcriptomic information was obtained for this model, and the DNA database TrBase was made publicly available. In this review, we describe how we found this species useful for biological research and show an example of CRISPR/Cas9 based knockout sea urchin.

Direct TGF-ß signaling via alk4/5/7 pathway is involved in gut bending in sea urchin embryos.

BACKGROUND: Precise gastrulation is essential for formation of functional bodies in cnidarians and bilaterians. Previously, by using an alk4/5/7-specific inhibitor, we showed that transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-ß)-alk4/5/7 signaling pathway is important for correct gut bending in sea urchin embryos. However, it is still unclear where functional TGF-ß signals are received in embryos for correct gut bending because details of the spatiotemporal expression pattern of alk4/5/7 have not been reported. RESULTS: We revealed that alk4/5/7 are expressed from the 2-cell to early pluteus stage throughout the entire body, including the invaginating gut. To investigate whether TGF-ß signals directly received in endoderm are required for correct gut bending, we made chimeras in which alk4/5/7 translation was inhibited only in endomesoderm lineage. As a result, the gut of the chimeric embryos did not bend precisely, in contrast to the control chimeras. CONCLUSION: We conclude that direct TGF-ß signaling to the endoderm via alk4/5/7 pathway regulates correct gut bending. However, TGF-ß-alk4/5/7 pathway is not related to mouth opening because the mouth is formed without TGF-ß signaling to the endoderm. This research contributes to understanding the mechanisms leading to the proper positioning of the end of the archenteron for forming a through-gut, which is commonly needed for bilaterians.

Human disease-associated extracellular matrix orthologs ECM3 and QBRICK regulate primary mesenchymal cell migration in sea urchin embryos.

Sea urchin embryos have been one of model organisms to investigate cellular behaviors because of their simple cell composition and transparent body. They also give us an opportunity to investigate molecular functions of human proteins of interest that are conserved in sea urchin. Here we report that human disease-associated extracellular matrix orthologues ECM3 and QBRICK are necessary for mesenchymal cell migration during sea urchin embryogenesis. Immunofluorescence has visualized the colocalization of QBRICK and ECM3 on both apical and basal surface of ectoderm. On the basal surface, QBRICK and ECM3 constitute together a mesh-like fibrillar structure along the blastocoel wall. When the expression of ECM3 was knocked down by antisense-morpholino oligonucleotides, the ECM3-QBRICK fibrillar structure completely disappeared. When QBRICK was knocked down, the ECM3 was still present, but the basally localized fibers became fragmented. The ingression and migration of primary mesenchymal cells were not critically affected, but their migration at later stages was severely affected in both knock-down embryos. As a consequence of impaired primary mesenchymal cell migration, improper spicule formation was observed. These results indicate that ECM3 and QBRICK are components of extracellular matrix, which play important role in primary mesenchymal cell migration, and that sea urchin is a useful experimental animal model to investigate human disease-associated extracellular matrix proteins.

Sea urchin larvae utilize light for regulating the pyloric opening.

BACKGROUND: Light is essential for various biological activities. In particular, visual information through eyes or eyespots is very important for most of animals, and thus, the functions and developmental mechanisms of visual systems have been well studied to date. In addition, light-dependent non-visual systems expressing photoreceptor Opsins have been used to study the effects of light on diverse animal behaviors. However, it remains unclear how light-dependent systems were acquired and diversified during deuterostome evolution due to an almost complete lack of knowledge on the light-response signaling pathway in Ambulacraria, one of the major groups of deuterostomes and a sister group of chordates. RESULTS: Here, we show that sea urchin larvae utilize light for digestive tract activity. We found that photoirradiation of larvae induces pyloric opening even without addition of food stimuli. Micro-surgical and knockdown experiments revealed that this stimulating light is received and mediated by Go(/RGR)-Opsin (Opsin3.2 in sea urchin genomes) cells around the anterior neuroectoderm. Furthermore, we found that the anterior neuroectodermal serotoninergic neurons near Go-Opsin-expressing cells are essential for mediating light stimuli-induced nitric oxide (NO) release at the pylorus. Our results demonstrate that the light>Go-Opsin>serotonin>NO pathway functions in pyloric opening during larval stages. CONCLUSIONS: The results shown here will lead us to understand how light-dependent systems of pyloric opening functioning via neurotransmitters were acquired and established during animal evolution. Based on the similarity of nervous system patterns and the gut proportions among Ambulacraria, we suggest the light>pyloric opening pathway may be conserved in the clade, although the light signaling pathway has so far not been reported in other members of the group. In light of brain-gut interactions previously found in vertebrates, we speculate that one primitive function of anterior neuroectodermal neurons (brain neurons) may have been to regulate the function of the digestive tract in the common ancestor of deuterostomes. Given that food consumption and nutrient absorption are essential for animals, the acquirement and development of brain-based sophisticated gut regulatory system might have been important for deuterostome evolution.

Usage of the Sea Urchin Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus Database, HpBase.

HpBase ( http://cell-innovation.nig.ac.jp/Hpul/ ) is a database that provides genome and transcriptome resources of the sea urchin Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus. In addition to downloading the bulk data, several analysis tools for resource use are available: gene search, homology search, and genome browsing. HpBase also discloses the protocols for biological experiments using H. pulcherrimus that have been accumulated so far. Therefore, HpBase can assist efficient use of genome resources for researchers from various fields-evolutionary, developmental, and cell biology. In this chapter we present an overview and usage of tools in HpBase.

Neural anatomy of echinoid early juveniles and comparison of nervous system organization in echinoderms.

The echinoderms are a phylum of marine deuterostomes characterized by the pentaradial (five fold) symmetry of their adult bodies. Due to this unusual body plan, adult echinoderms have long been excluded from comparative analyses aimed at understanding the origin and evolution of deuterostome nervous systems. Here, we investigated the neural anatomy of early juveniles of representatives of three of the five echinoderm classes: the echinoid Paracentrotus lividus, the asteroid Patiria miniata, and the holothuroid Parastichopus parvimensis. Using whole mount immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy, we found that the nervous system of echinoid early juveniles is composed of three main structures: a basiepidermal nerve plexus, five radial nerve cords connected by a circumoral nerve ring, and peripheral nerves innervating the appendages. Our whole mount preparations further allowed us to obtain thorough descriptions of these structures and of several innervation patterns, in particular at the level of the appendages. Detailed comparisons of the echinoid juvenile nervous system with those of asteroid and holothuroid juveniles moreover supported a general conservation of the main neural structures in all three species, including at the level of the appendages. Our results support the previously proposed hypotheses for the existence of two neural units in echinoderms: one consisting of the basiepidermal nerve plexus to process sensory stimuli locally and one composed of the radial nerve cords and the peripheral nerves constituting a centralized control system. This study provides the basis for more in-depth comparisons of the echinoderm adult nervous system with those of other animals, in particular hemichordates and chordates, to address the long-standing controversies about deuterostome nervous system evolution.

Establishment of homozygous knock-out sea urchins.

Yaguchi et al. establish a homozygous knock-out sea urchin line by applying the CRISPR-Cas9 system to a new model species, Temnopleurus reevesii, whose breeding cycle takes about half a year.

Whole mount in situ hybridization techniques for analysis of the spatial distribution of mRNAs in sea urchin embryos and early larvae.

A critical process in embryonic development is the activation and spatial localization of mRNAs to specific cells and territories of the embryo. Revealing the spatial distribution of mRNAs and how it changes during development is a vital piece of information that aids in understanding the signaling and regulatory genes driving specific gene regulatory networks. In the laboratory, a cost-efficient, reliable method to determine the spatial distribution of mRNAs in embryos is in situ hybridization. This sensitive and straightforward method employs exogenous antisense RNA probes to find specific and complementary sequences in fixed embryos. Antigenic moieties conjugated to the ribonucleotides incorporated in the probe cross-react with antibodies, and numerous staining methods can be subsequently employed to reveal the spatial distribution of the targeted mRNA. The quality of the data produced by this method is equivalent to the experience of the researcher, and thus a thorough understanding of the numerous steps comprising this method is important for obtaining high quality data. Here we compile and summarize several protocols that have been employed chiefly on five sea urchin species in numerous laboratories around the world. Whereas the protocols can vary for the different species, the overarching steps are similar and can be readily mastered. When properly and carefully undertaken, in situ hybridization is a powerful tool providing unambiguous data for which there currently is no comparable substitute and will continue to be an important method in the era of big data and beyond.

Analysis of neural activity with fluorescent protein biosensors.

Fluorescent calcium sensors provide a means of detecting and analyzing cytoplasmic calcium levels in embryos and larvae. Conventional RNA injection of eggs results in expression of protein sensors throughout larval tissues. Larvae are immobilized for wide field or confocal recordings and video records reveal recurrent fluctuations in cytoplasmic calcium levels in several cell types. Neurons can be identified by location and form, and continuous records made of their activity. Confocal image stacks are registered and Z-axis, fluorescence intensity profiles of individual neurons generated to provide time/activity plots. These optogenetic methods enable analysis in intact larvae of the activity of identified neurons or effectors, such as muscles or ciliary band cells.

cis-Regulatory analysis for later phase of anterior neuroectoderm-specific foxQ2 expression in sea urchin embryos.

The specification of anterior neuroectoderm is controlled by a highly conserved molecular mechanism in bilaterians. A forkhead family gene, foxQ2, is known to be one of the pivotal regulators, which is zygotically expressed in this region during embryogenesis of a broad range of bilaterians. However, what controls the expression of this essential factor has remained unclear to date. To reveal the regulatory mechanism of foxQ2, we performed cis-regulatory analysis of two foxQ2 genes, foxQ2a and foxQ2b, in a sea urchin Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus. In sea urchin embryos, foxQ2 is initially expressed in the entire animal hemisphere and subsequently shows narrower expression restricted to the anterior pole region. In this study, as a first step to understand the foxQ2 regulation, we focused on the later restricted expression and analyzed the upstream cis-regulatory sequences of foxQ2a and foxQ2b by using the constructs fused to short half-life green fluorescent protein. Based on deletion and mutation analyses of both foxQ2, we identified each of the five regulatory sequences, which were 4-9 bp long. Neither of the regulatory sequences contains any motifs for ectopic activation or spatial repression, suggesting that later mRNA localization is regulated in situ. We also suggest that the three amino acid loop extension-class homeobox gene Meis is involved in the maintenance of foxQ2b, the expression of which is dominant during embryogenesis.

Evolution of nitric oxide regulation of gut function.

Although morphologies are diverse, the common pattern in bilaterians is for passage of food in the gut to be controlled by nerves and endodermally derived neuron-like cells. In vertebrates, nitric oxide (NO) derived from enteric nerves controls relaxation of the pyloric sphincter. Here, we show that in the larvae of sea urchins, there are endoderm-derived neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)-positive cells expressing pan-neural marker, Synaptotagmin-B (SynB), in sphincters and that NO regulates the relaxation of the pyloric sphincter. Our results indicate that NO-dependent pylorus regulation is a shared feature within the deuterostomes, and we speculate that it was a characteristic of stem deuterostomes.

Temnopleurus as an emerging echinoderm model.

Sea urchins have played important roles in cell and developmental biology. They have the potential to be even more useful as models if the ability to create transgenic animals and maintain genetic lines are developed. Here, I describe the methods to produce next-generation lines using a newly introduced sea urchin model, Temnopleurus reevesii, in the laboratory. The embryos of T. reevesii have wide range of temperature tolerance between 15°C to 30°C and have high transparency, which can be a strong point in live-imaging and fluorescent immunohistochemistry. I describe how to grow and culture the embryos/larvae/juveniles/adults of T. reevesii to address the challenge of establishing inbred strains followed by introducing genetics into this species in the future.

Meis transcription factor maintains the neurogenic ectoderm and regulates the anterior-posterior patterning in embryos of a sea urchin, Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus.

Precise body axis formation is an essential step in the development of multicellular organisms, for most of which the molecular gradient and/or specifically biased localization of cell-fate determinants in eggs play important roles. In sea urchins, however, any biased proteins and mRNAs have not yet been identified in the egg except for vegetal cortex molecules, suggesting that sea urchin development is mostly regulated by uniformly distributed maternal molecules with contributions to axis formation that are not well characterized. Here, we describe that the maternal Meis transcription factor regulates anterior-posterior axis formation through maintenance of the most anterior territory in embryos of a sea urchin, Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus. Loss-of-function experiments revealed that Meis is intrinsically required for maintenance of the anterior neuroectoderm specifier foxQ2 after hatching and, consequently, the morphant lost anterior neuroectoderm characteristics. In addition, the expression patterns of univin and VEGF, the lateral ectoderm markers, and the mesenchyme-cell pattern shifted toward the anterior side in Meis morphants more than they did in control embryos, indicating that Meis contributes to the precise anteroposterior patterning by regulating the anterior neuroectodermal fate.