{"title":"BMP signaling regulates dorsal skeletal growth in the sea urchin embryo.","authors":"William B Douglas, Charles A Ettensohn","doi":"10.1242/dev.205344","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The development of the elaborate, calcified endoskeleton of sea urchin embryos is a model for understanding the dynamic nature of developmental gene regulatory networks and the control of biomineralization. While several signaling pathways have been shown to regulate gene expression and biomineral formation by sea urchin skeletogenic cells, important gaps in our understanding remain. Here, we focused on signals that regulate skeletogenesis along the dorsal-ventral axis of the late-stage embryo. We used a specific inhibitor of Type I BMP receptors, K02288, to show that BMP signaling regulates skeletal growth selectively in the dorsal region. K02288 treatment led to dorsal skeletal defects and inhibited the expression of genes typically expressed specifically in the dorsal skeletogenic cells, including biomineralization genes. Using RNA sequencing, we identified genes that were uniquely downstream of either the BMP or a ventral signaling pathway (the VEGF pathway) at late developmental stages and genes downstream of both pathways. Our findings establish BMP signaling as a key pathway regulating dorsal skeleton formation and show that BMP signaling functions in concert with VEGF signaling to define the dorsal-ventral axis of the skeleton.</p>","PeriodicalId":11375,"journal":{"name":"Development","volume":"153 16","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2026-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Development","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.205344","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/4/23 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The development of the elaborate, calcified endoskeleton of sea urchin embryos is a model for understanding the dynamic nature of developmental gene regulatory networks and the control of biomineralization. While several signaling pathways have been shown to regulate gene expression and biomineral formation by sea urchin skeletogenic cells, important gaps in our understanding remain. Here, we focused on signals that regulate skeletogenesis along the dorsal-ventral axis of the late-stage embryo. We used a specific inhibitor of Type I BMP receptors, K02288, to show that BMP signaling regulates skeletal growth selectively in the dorsal region. K02288 treatment led to dorsal skeletal defects and inhibited the expression of genes typically expressed specifically in the dorsal skeletogenic cells, including biomineralization genes. Using RNA sequencing, we identified genes that were uniquely downstream of either the BMP or a ventral signaling pathway (the VEGF pathway) at late developmental stages and genes downstream of both pathways. Our findings establish BMP signaling as a key pathway regulating dorsal skeleton formation and show that BMP signaling functions in concert with VEGF signaling to define the dorsal-ventral axis of the skeleton.
期刊介绍:
Development’s scope covers all aspects of plant and animal development, including stem cell biology and regeneration. The single most important criterion for acceptance in Development is scientific excellence. Research papers (articles and reports) should therefore pose and test a significant hypothesis or address a significant question, and should provide novel perspectives that advance our understanding of development. We also encourage submission of papers that use computational methods or mathematical models to obtain significant new insights into developmental biology topics. Manuscripts that are descriptive in nature will be considered only when they lay important groundwork for a field and/or provide novel resources for understanding developmental processes of broad interest to the community.
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