Cnidarian-bilaterian comparison reveals the ancestral regulatory logic of the β-catenin dependent axial patterning

Nat Commun. 2021 Jun 29;12(1):4032. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24346-8.

ABSTRACT

In animals, body axis patterning is based on the concentration-dependent interpretation of graded morphogen signals, which enables correct positioning of the anatomical structures. The most ancient axis patterning system acting across animal phyla relies on β-catenin signaling, which directs gastrulation, and patterns the main body axis. However, within Bilateria, the patterning logic varies significantly between protostomes and deuterostomes. To deduce the ancestral principles of β-catenin-dependent axial patterning, we investigate the oral-aboral axis patterning in the sea anemone Nematostella-a member of the bilaterian sister group Cnidaria. Here we elucidate the regulatory logic by which more orally expressed β-catenin targets repress more aborally expressed β-catenin targets, and progressively restrict the initially global, maternally provided aboral identity. Similar regulatory logic of β-catenin-dependent patterning in Nematostella and deuterostomes suggests a common evolutionary origin of these processes and the equivalence of the cnidarian oral-aboral and the bilaterian posterior-anterior body axes.

PMID:34188050 | PMC:PMC8241978 | DOI:10.1038/s41467-021-24346-8