Unequal cleavage in leech embryos: zygotic transcription is required for correct spindle orientation in subset of early blastomeres

The asymmetric cell division machinery in the spiral-cleaving egg and embryo of the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii

BACKGROUND

Over one third of all animal phyla utilize a mode of early embryogenesis called 'spiral cleavage' to divide the fertilized egg into embryonic cells with different cell fates. This mode is characterized by a series of invariant, stereotypic, asymmetric cell divisions (ACDs) that generates cells of different size and defined position within the early embryo. Astonishingly, very little is known about the underlying molecular machinery to orchestrate these ACDs in spiral-cleaving embryos. Here we identify, for the first time, cohorts of factors that may contribute to early embryonic ACDs in a spiralian embryo.

RESULTS

To do so we analyzed stage-specific transcriptome data in eggs and early embryos of the spiralian annelid Platynereis dumerilii for the expression of over 50 candidate genes that are involved in (1) establishing cortical domains such as the partitioning defective (par) genes, (2) directing spindle orientation, (3) conveying polarity cues including crumbs and scribble, and (4) maintaining cell-cell adhesion between embryonic cells. In general, each of these cohorts of genes are co-expressed exhibiting high levels of transcripts in the oocyte and fertilized single-celled embryo, with progressively lower levels at later stages. Interestingly, a small number of key factors within each ACD module show different expression profiles with increased early zygotic expression suggesting distinct regulatory functions. In addition, our analysis discovered several highly co-expressed genes that have been associated with specialized neural cell-cell recognition functions in the nervous system. The high maternal contribution of these 'neural' adhesion complexes indicates novel general adhesion functions during early embryogenesis.

CONCLUSIONS

Spiralian embryos are champions of ACD generating embryonic cells of different size with astonishing accuracy. Our results suggest that the molecular machinery for ACD is already stored as maternal transcripts in the oocyte. Thus, the spiralian egg can be viewed as a totipotent yet highly specialized cell that evolved to execute fast and precise ACDs during spiral cleaving stages. Our survey identifies cohorts of factors in P. dumerilii that are candidates for these molecular mechanisms and their regulation, and sets the stage for a functional dissection of ACD in a spiral-cleaving embryo.

Transcriptional control of unequal cleavage in early Tubifex embryos

Early embryos of the clitellate annelid Tubifex (oligochaete) undergo a series of unequal spiral cell divisions before the descendants of the D quadrant micromeres (cells 2d and 4d) divide bilaterally. Here, we show that inhibition of zygotic transcription by microinjection of α-amanitin (transcription inhibitor) exclusively converts unequal cleavage in cell 2d¹¹ (granddaughter of 2d) into equal cleavage while other unequal cleavages and ensuing bilateral cleavages in cells 4d and 2d¹¹¹ (great-granddaughter of 2d) all proceed in a normal fashion in the presence of this inhibitor. These results differ significantly from those reported for embryos of another clitellate annelid Helobdella (leech), in which inhibition of transcription converts bilateral (symmetric) cleavages in cells DNOPQ"' and DM" (equivalent to 2d¹¹¹ and 4d) into unequal (asymmetric) cleavages while having no apparent effect on unequal cleavage in DNOPQ" (equivalent to 2d¹¹). These differences imply distinct mechanisms for the control of the unequal-to-bilateral transition in the two clitellate annelids.

Sinistral equal-size spiral cleavage of the indirectly developing polychaeteHydroides elegans

Two major variants of the stereotypic spiral cleavage correlate with distinct developmental modes in polychaetes. Indirect development through a feeding trochophore larva correlates with development from four equal-sized blastomeres, whereas direct development correlates with unequal cleavage characterized by a large dorsal blastomere precursor maternally predetermined. The equal-size spiral cleavage of the indirectly developing serpulid Hydroides elegans has been reconstructed from serial sections of nuclei-stained embryos. The order of cell divisions has been determined from the 2-cell stage to the 80-cell stage, when gastrulation cell movements start to overlap with late spiral-cleavage divisions. In contrast to related species, the third cleavage in Hydroides elegans is invariably sinistral. The four quadrants remain indistinct until the 60-cell stage, when the small 2d22 and large 2d21 cells are generated. The developmental significance of the invariant spiral cleavage relates to the spatial distribution of gene functions that it partitions and their relation to blastomere fate commitments. The conservation and divergence of the cleavage pattern among spiralians is well suited to study the developmental control of the cell-cleavage machinery and its evolution.

An overview of glossiphoniid leech development

Dramatic advances in understanding the development of selected "model" organisms, coupled with the realization that genes which regulate development are often conserved between diverse taxa, have renewed interest in comparative development and evolution. Recent molecular phylogenies seem to be converging on a new consensus "tree," according to which higher bilaterians fall into three major groups, Deuterostoma, Ecdysozoa, and Lophotrochozoa. Commonly studied model systems for development fall almost exclusively within the first two of these groups. Glossiphoniid leeches (phylum Annelida) offer certain advantages for descriptive and experimental embryology per se, and can also serve to represent the lophotrochozoan clade. We present an overview of the development of glossiphoniid leeches, highlighting some current research questions and the potential for comparative cellular and molecular studies.

Equalization of unequal first cleavage in the Tubifex egg by introduction of an additional centrosome: implications for the absence of cortical mechanisms for mitotic spindle asymmetry

The first cleavage in the Tubifex egg is unequal and involves a monastral mitotic apparatus (MA), which remains at the egg's center from metaphase through telophase. The monastral form of the MA is thought to arise due to the involvement of a single maternal centrosome in the MA assembly (R. Ishii and T. Shimizu, Dev. Growth Differ. 37, 687-701, 1995). To investigate the mechanisms that generate asymmetry in this division, we have examined the cleavage patterns in eggs that are manipulated to inherit two centrosomes during the first mitosis. When eggs are prevented from extruding polar bodies, centrosomes located at both poles of the first meiotic spindle persist into the first mitosis without showing any sign of duplication and generate astral spindle poles. Eggs that inherit these centrosomes exhibit two types of MA configurations, viz., an amphiastral MA and twin monastral MAs. We found that eggs with amphiastral MAs undergo bipolar equal divisions, while those with twin MAs divide into three cells simultaneously (tripolar divisions). The amphiastral MAs are located at the egg's center and their astral poles are organized symmetrically, suggesting that Tubifex eggs are unable to generate asymmetry in the amphiastral MAs during the first mitosis. These results suggest that inheritance of a single centrosome during the first mitosis is critical for Tubifex eggs to undergo unequal cleavage. We propose that the cortical mechanisms for MA asymmetry are lacking in the Tubifex egg during the first mitosis.

Role of intercellular contacts in generating an asymmetric mitotic apparatus in the Tubifex embryo

The 2-cell stage embryo of Tubifex is composed of a smaller cell, AB, and a larger cell, CD. At the second cleavage, the CD-cell divides unequally. The mitotic apparatus (MA) involved in this division is organized asymmetrically: the MA pole to be segregated to a smaller cell is flattened and truncated, and associated with the anterior cortex facing the AB-cell, while the other pole is symmetric and located more centrally. The present study was undertaken to elucidate the mechanism that generates asymmetry in the MA organization in CD-cells. When CD-cell nuclei, which are normally located near the anterior cortex, were displaced toward the posterior end of the cell (i.e. opposite AB-cells) by centrifugation, MA assembled ectopically there, and were bilaterally symmetric in organization. Similar symmetric MA were formed in isolated CD-cells, which divided more equally than intact cells. This equality of cell division was dramatically reduced if the anterior surface of isolated CD-cells formed contact with other cells, such as AB-, C- and 4D-cells. The MA that formed in these reconstituted embryos were asymmetric in organization; one MA pole was always found to be truncated and apposed to the cortical site at the cell contact. Symmetric MA were also observed in cytochalasin-treated embryos. Together with the finding that one of the MA poles is physically attached to the anterior cortex of the intact CD-cell, these results suggest that factors generating asymmetry in the spatial organization of MA poles reside at the anterior cortex of the CD-cell and that this cortical mechanism is dependent upon cell contacts.

Developmental control of cell division in leech embryos

During embryogenesis, cell division must be spatially and temporally regulated with respect to other developmental processes. Leech embryos undergo a series of unequal and asynchronous cleavages to produce individually recognizable cells whose lineages, developmental fates and cell cycle properties have been characterized. Thus, leech embryos provide an opportunity to examine the regulation of cell division at the level of individual well-characterized cells within a community of different types of cells. Isolation of leech homologues of some of the highly conserved regulators of the cell division cycle, and characterization of their patterns of maternal and zygotic expression, indicate that the cell divisions of early leech embryos are regulated by cell type-specific mechanisms. These studies with leech embryos contribute to the emerging appreciation of the diverse mechanisms by which animals regulate cell division during early development.