First published online May 23, 2006
Development 133, 1204e (2006)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Spinning a developmental story
For all animals, the formation of the embryonic axes is an important
developmental milestone. Now, on p.
2347, Akiyama-Oda and
Oda report that in spiders Decapentaplegic (Dpp) is essential for the
transformation of a radially symmetrical embryo to one with axial symmetry.
They also report that Short gastrulation (Sog) is required for ventral
patterning. In Drosophila embryos, Sog functions antagonistically
with Dpp in dorsoventral pattern formation. To investigate the function of
these two proteins in house spider embryos, the researchers used RNAi
knockdown. Depletion of dpp stopped the embryos losing their radial
symmetry; depletion of sog led to nearly complete loss of ventral
structures, including the central nervous system. The researchers note that
this mechanism for ventral specification is much more similar to that of
vertebrates than to that of evolutionarily distant arthropods, like
Drosophila, in which Sog makes only minor contributions to the
development of ventral structures. Future studies in spider embryos could,
therefore, provide new insights into the evolution of early development.
Related articles in Development:
- Axis specification in the spider embryo: dpp is required for radial-to-axial symmetry transformation and sog for ventral patterning
- Yasuko Akiyama-Oda and Hiroki Oda
Development 2006 133: 2347-2357.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
