Linking early determinants and cilia-driven leftward flow in left-right axis specification of Xenopus laevis: a theoretical approach

Understanding laterality disorders and the left-right organizer: Insights from zebrafish

Vital internal organs display a left-right (LR) asymmetric arrangement that is established during embryonic development. Disruption of this LR asymmetry-or laterality-can result in congenital organ malformations. Situs inversus totalis (SIT) is a complete concordant reversal of internal organs that results in a low occurrence of clinical consequences. Situs ambiguous, which gives rise to Heterotaxy syndrome (HTX), is characterized by discordant development and arrangement of organs that is associated with a wide range of birth defects. The leading cause of health problems in HTX patients is a congenital heart malformation. Mutations identified in patients with laterality disorders implicate motile cilia in establishing LR asymmetry. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying SIT and HTX are not fully understood. In several vertebrates, including mouse, frog and zebrafish, motile cilia located in a "left-right organizer" (LRO) trigger conserved signaling pathways that guide asymmetric organ development. Perturbation of LRO formation and/or function in animal models recapitulates organ malformations observed in SIT and HTX patients. This provides an opportunity to use these models to investigate the embryological origins of laterality disorders. The zebrafish embryo has emerged as an important model for investigating the earliest steps of LRO development. Here, we discuss clinical characteristics of human laterality disorders, and highlight experimental results from zebrafish that provide insights into LRO biology and advance our understanding of human laterality disorders.

Maternal control of visceral asymmetry evolution in Astyanax cavefish

The direction of visceral organ asymmetry is highly conserved during vertebrate evolution with heart development biased to the left and pancreas and liver development restricted to opposing sides of the midline. Here we show that reversals in visceral organ asymmetry have evolved in Astyanax mexicanus, a teleost species with interfertile surface-dwelling (surface fish) and cave-dwelling (cavefish) forms. Visceral organ asymmetry is conventional in surface fish but some cavefish have evolved reversals in heart, liver, and pancreas development. Corresponding changes in the normally left-sided expression of the Nodal-Pitx2/Lefty signaling system are also present in the cavefish lateral plate mesoderm (LPM). The Nodal antagonists lefty1 (lft1) and lefty2 (lft2), which confine Nodal signaling to the left LPM, are expressed in most surface fish, however, lft2, but not lft1, expression is absent during somitogenesis of most cavefish. Despite this difference, multiple lines of evidence suggested that evolutionary changes in L-R patterning are controlled upstream of Nodal-Pitx2/Lefty signaling. Accordingly, reciprocal hybridization of cavefish and surface fish showed that modifications of heart asymmetry are present in hybrids derived from cavefish mothers but not from surface fish mothers. The results indicate that changes in visceral asymmetry during cavefish evolution are influenced by maternal genetic effects.

What we can learn from a tadpole about ciliopathies and airway diseases: Using systems biology in Xenopus to study cilia and mucociliary epithelia

Over the past years, the Xenopus embryo has emerged as an incredibly useful model organism for studying the formation and function of cilia and ciliated epithelia in vivo. This has led to a variety of findings elucidating the molecular mechanisms of ciliated cell specification, basal body biogenesis, cilia assembly, and ciliary motility. These findings also revealed the deep functional conservation of signaling, transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and protein networks employed in the formation and function of vertebrate ciliated cells. Therefore, Xenopus research can contribute crucial insights not only into developmental and cell biology, but also into the molecular mechanisms underlying cilia related diseases (ciliopathies) as well as diseases affecting the ciliated epithelium of the respiratory tract in humans (e.g., chronic lung diseases). Additionally, systems biology approaches including transcriptomics, genomics, and proteomics have been rapidly adapted for use in Xenopus, and broaden the applications for current and future translational biomedical research. This review aims to present the advantages of using Xenopus for cilia research, highlight some of the evolutionarily conserved key concepts and mechanisms of ciliated cell biology that were elucidated using the Xenopus model, and describe the potential for Xenopus research to address unresolved questions regarding the molecular mechanisms of ciliopathies and airway diseases.

Cilia in vertebrate left-right patterning

Understanding how left-right (LR) asymmetry is generated in vertebrate embryos is an important problem in developmental biology. In humans, a failure to align the left and right sides of cardiovascular and/or gastrointestinal systems often results in birth defects. Evidence from patients and animal models has implicated cilia in the process of left-right patterning. Here, we review the proposed functions for cilia in establishing LR asymmetry, which include creating transient leftward fluid flows in an embryonic 'left-right organizer'. These flows direct asymmetric activation of a conserved Nodal (TGFβ) signalling pathway that guides asymmetric morphogenesis of developing organs. We discuss the leading hypotheses for how cilia-generated asymmetric fluid flows are translated into asymmetric molecular signals. We also discuss emerging mechanisms that control the subcellular positioning of cilia and the cellular architecture of the left-right organizer, both of which are critical for effective cilia function during left-right patterning. Finally, using mosaic cell-labelling and time-lapse imaging in the zebrafish embryo, we provide new evidence that precursor cells maintain their relative positions as they give rise to the ciliated left-right organizer. This suggests the possibility that these cells acquire left-right positional information prior to the appearance of cilia.This article is part of the themed issue 'Provocative questions in left-right asymmetry'.

Cilia are required for asymmetric nodal induction in the sea urchin embryo

Background

Left-right (LR) organ asymmetries are a common feature of metazoan animals. In many cases, laterality is established by a conserved asymmetric Nodal signaling cascade during embryogenesis. In most vertebrates, asymmetric nodal induction results from a cilia-driven leftward fluid flow at the left-right organizer (LRO), a ciliated epithelium present during gastrula/neurula stages. Conservation of LRO and flow beyond the vertebrates has not been reported yet.

Results

Here we study sea urchin embryos, which use nodal to establish larval LR asymmetry as well. Cilia were found in the archenteron of embryos undergoing gastrulation. Expression of foxj1 and dnah9 suggested that archenteron cilia were motile. Cilia were polarized to the posterior pole of cells, a prerequisite of directed flow. High-speed videography revealed rotating cilia in the archenteron slightly before asymmetric nodal induction. Removal of cilia through brief high salt treatments resulted in aberrant patterns of nodal expression. Our data demonstrate that cilia - like in vertebrates - are required for asymmetric nodal induction in sea urchin embryos.

Conclusions

Based on these results we argue that the anterior archenteron represents a bona fide LRO and propose that cilia-based symmetry breakage is a synapomorphy of the deuterostomes.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12861-016-0128-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Symmetry breakage in the vertebrate embryo: when does it happen and how does it work?

Asymmetric development of the vertebrate embryo has fascinated embryologists for over a century. Much has been learned since the asymmetric Nodal signaling cascade in the left lateral plate mesoderm was detected, and began to be unraveled over the past decade or two. When and how symmetry is initially broken, however, has remained a matter of debate. Two essentially mutually exclusive models prevail. Cilia-driven leftward flow of extracellular fluids occurs in mammalian, fish and amphibian embryos. A great deal of experimental evidence indicates that this flow is indeed required for symmetry breaking. An alternative model has argued, however, that flow simply acts as an amplification step for early asymmetric cues generated by ion flux during the first cleavage divisions. In this review we critically evaluate the experimental basis of both models. Although a number of open questions persist, the available evidence is best compatible with flow-based symmetry breakage as the archetypical mode of symmetry breakage.

Salient features of the ciliated organ of asymmetry

Many internal organs develop distinct left and right sides that are essential for their functions. In several vertebrate embryos, motile cilia generate an asymmetric fluid flow that plays an important role in establishing left-right (LR) signaling cascades. These ‘LR cilia’ are found in the ventral node and posterior notochordal plate in mammals, the gastrocoel roof plate in amphibians and Kupffer’s vesicle in teleost fish. I consider these transient ciliated structures as the ‘organ of asymmetry’ that directs LR patterning of the developing embryo. Variations in size and morphology of the organ of asymmetry in different vertebrate species have raised questions regarding the fundamental features that are required for LR determination. Here, I review current models for how LR asymmetry is established in vertebrates, discuss the cellular architecture of the ciliated organ of asymmetry and then propose key features of this organ that are critical for orienting the LR body axis.

Wnt11b is involved in cilia-mediated symmetry breakage during Xenopus left-right development

Breakage of bilateral symmetry in amphibian embryos depends on the development of a ciliated epithelium at the gastrocoel roof during early neurulation. Motile cilia at the gastrocoel roof plate (GRP) give rise to leftward flow of extracellular fluids. Flow is required for asymmetric gene expression and organ morphogenesis. Wnt signaling has previously been involved in two steps, Wnt/ß-catenin mediated induction of Foxj1, a regulator of motile cilia, and Wnt/planar cell polarity (PCP) dependent cilia polarization to the posterior pole of cells. We have studied Wnt11b in the context of laterality determination, as this ligand was reported to activate canonical and non-canonical Wnt signaling. Wnt11b was found to be expressed in the so-called superficial mesoderm (SM), from which the GRP derives. Surprisingly, Foxj1 was only marginally affected in loss-of-function experiments, indicating that another ligand acts in this early step of laterality specification. Wnt11b was required, however, for polarization of GRP cilia and GRP morphogenesis, in line with the known function of Wnt/PCP in cilia-driven leftward flow. In addition Xnr1 and Coco expression in the lateral-most GRP cells, which sense flow and generate the first asymmetric signal, was attenuated in morphants, involving Wnt signaling in yet another process related to symmetry breakage in Xenopus.

A unified model for left-right asymmetry? Comparison and synthesis of molecular models of embryonic laterality

Understanding how and when the left-right (LR) axis is first established is a fundamental question in developmental biology. A popular model is that the LR axis is established relatively late in embryogenesis, due to the movement of motile cilia and the resultant directed fluid flow during late gastrulation/early neurulation. Yet, a large body of evidence suggests that biophysical, molecular, and bioelectrical asymmetries exist much earlier in development, some as early as the first cell cleavage after fertilization. Alternative models of LR asymmetry have been proposed that accommodate these data, postulating that asymmetry is established due to a chiral cytoskeleton and/or the asymmetric segregation of chromatids. There are some similarities, and many differences, in how these various models postulate the origin and timing of symmetry breaking and amplification, and these events' linkage to the well-conserved subsequent asymmetric transcriptional cascades. This review examines experimental data that lend strong support to an early origin of LR asymmetry, yet are also consistent with later roles for cilia in the amplification of LR pathways. In this way, we propose that the various models of asymmetry can be unified: early events are needed to initiate LR asymmetry, and later events could be utilized by some species to maintain LR-biases. We also present an alternative hypothesis, which proposes that individual embryos stochastically choose one of several possible pathways with which to establish their LR axis. These two hypotheses are both tractable in appropriate model species; testing them to resolve open questions in the field of LR patterning will reveal interesting new biology of wide relevance to developmental, cell, and evolutionary biology.

Rab GTPases are required for early orientation of the left-right axis in Xenopus

The earliest steps of left-right (LR) patterning in Xenopus embryos are driven by biased intracellular transport that ensures a consistently asymmetric localization of maternal ion channels and pumps in the first 2-4 blastomeres. The subsequent differential net efflux of ions by these transporters generates a bioelectrical asymmetry; this LR voltage gradient redistributes small signaling molecules along the LR axis that later regulate transcription of the normally left-sided Nodal. This system thus amplifies single cell chirality into a true left-right asymmetry across multi-cellular fields. Studies using molecular-genetic gain- and loss-of-function reagents have characterized many of the steps involved in this early pathway in Xenopus. Yet one key question remains: how is the chiral cytoskeletal architecture interpreted to localize ion transporters to the left or right side? Because Rab GTPases regulate nearly all aspects of membrane trafficking, we hypothesized that one or more Rab proteins were responsible for the directed, asymmetric shuttling of maternal ion channel or pump proteins. After performing a screen using dominant negative and wildtype (overexpressing) mRNAs for four different Rabs, we found that alterations in Rab11 expression randomize both asymmetric gene expression and organ situs. We also demonstrated that the asymmetric localization of two ion transporter subunits requires Rab11 function, and that Rab11 is closely associated with at least one of these subunits. Yet, importantly, we found that endogenous Rab11 mRNA and protein are expressed symmetrically in the early embryo. We conclude that Rab11-mediated transport is responsible for the movement of cargo within early blastomeres, and that Rab11 expression is required throughout the early embryo for proper LR patterning.

Reciprocal signaling between the ectoderm and a mesendodermal left-right organizer directs left-right determination in the sea urchin embryo

During echinoderm development, expression of nodal on the right side plays a crucial role in positioning of the rudiment on the left side, but the mechanisms that restrict nodal expression to the right side are not known. Here we show that establishment of left-right asymmetry in the sea urchin embryo relies on reciprocal signaling between the ectoderm and a left-right organizer located in the endomesoderm. FGF/ERK and BMP2/4 signaling are required to initiate nodal expression in this organizer, while Delta/Notch signaling is required to suppress formation of this organizer on the left side of the archenteron. Furthermore, we report that the H(+)/K(+)-ATPase is critically required in the Notch signaling pathway upstream of the S3 cleavage of Notch. Our results identify several novel players and key early steps responsible for initiation, restriction, and propagation of left-right asymmetry during embryogenesis of a non-chordate deuterostome and uncover a functional link between the H(+)/K(+)-ATPase and the Notch signaling pathway.

Connexin26-mediated transfer of laterality cues in Xenopus

A cilia-driven leftward flow of extracellular fluid breaks bilateral symmetry in the dorsal midline of the neurula stage vertebrate embryo. The left-specific Nodal signaling cascade in the lateral plate mesoderm (LPM) is key to asymmetric morphogenesis and placement of organs during subsequent development. The nature of the initial asymmetric cue(s) as well as the transfer of information from the midline to the left side has remained elusive. Gap junctional communication has been previously involved in Xenopus left-right (LR) development, however a function at cleavage stages was inferred from inhibitor experiments. Here we show by heptanol-mediated block of connexin function that flow stages during neurulation represent the critical time window. Flow in Xenopus occurs at the gastrocoel roof plate (GRP), a ciliated sheath of cells of mesodermal fate transiently positioned within the dorsal epithelial lining of the forming archenteron. We reasoned that endodermal cells immediately adjacent to the GRP are important for transfer of asymmetry. A systematic screen identified two connexin genes, Cx26 and Cx32, which were co-expressed in these lateral endodermal cells. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments pinpointed Cx26 as the critical connexin for LR development, while Cx32 had no effect on laterality. Importantly, GRP morphology, ciliation and flow were not affected in Cx26 morphants. Our results demonstrate a decisive role of Cx26 in the transfer of laterality cues from the GRP to the left LPM, providing a novel access to the identification of the initial asymmetric signal generated by flow.