A tolloid homologue from the pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

• Published in: Gene Expression Patterns
• Main Authors: Herpin, Amaury, Lelong, Christophe, Becker, Tom, Favrel, Pascal, Cunningham, Charles
• Other Authors: SARS International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology, Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Université de Nantes (UN), Basse-Normandie Regional Council, France and the French-Norwegian Foundation for Scientific, Technical and Industrial Research
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: Crassostrea gigas; bivalve; zebrafish; Ecdysozoa; bone morphogenetic protein; transforming growth factor beta; mesoderm patterning; embryogenesis; tolloid; oyster; Lophotrochozoa; mollusc; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Pacific; Pacific oyster
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02657862; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.modgep.2007.03.001

International audience The genes governing mesoderm specification have been extensively studied in vertebrates, arthropods and nematodes. The latter two phyla belong to the Ecdysozoan clade but little is understood of the role that these genes might play in the development of the other major protostomal clade, the Lophotrochozoa. As part of a wider project to analyze the functions associated with transforming growth factor beta superfamily members in Lophotrochozoa, we have cloned a gene encoding a tolloid homologue from the bivalve mollusc Crassostrea gigas. Tolloid is a key developmental protein that regulates the activity of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs). We have determined the intron-exon structure of the gene encoding C. gigas tolloid and have compared it with those of homologous genes from both protostomes and deuterostomes. In order to analyze the functionality of oyster tolloid the zebrafish embryo has been employed as a reporter organism and we show that over-expression of this protein results in the ventralization of zebrafish embryos at 24h post fertilization. The expression of the C. gigas tolloid gene during embryonic and larval development as well as in adult tissues is also explored.