The Developmental Transcriptome for Lytechinus variegatus Exhibits Temporally Punctuated Gene Expression Changes
2019
Embryonicdevelopment is arguably the most complex process an organism undergoes during its lifetime, and understanding this complexity is best approached with a systems-level perspective. The
sea urchinhas become a highly valuable model organism for understanding developmental specification, morphogenesis, and evolution. As a non-
chordate
deuterostome, the
sea urchinoccupies an important evolutionary niche between
protostomesand vertebrates.
Lytechinus variegatus(Lv) is an Atlantic species that has been well studied, and which has provided important insights into signal transduction, patterning, and morphogenetic changes during
embryonicand larval development. The Pacific species,
Strongylocentrotus purpuratus(Sp), is another well-studied
sea urchin, particularly for
gene regulatory networks(GRNs) and cis-regulatory analyses. A well-annotated genome and transcriptome for Sp are available, but similar resources have not been developed for Lv. Here, we provide an analysis of the Lv transcriptome at 11 timepoints during
embryonicand larval development. The data indicate that the
gene regulatory networksthat underlie specification are well-conserved among
sea urchinspecies. We show that the major transitions in variation of
embryonictranscription divide the developmental time series into four distinct, temporally sequential phases. Our work shows that
sea urchindevelopment occurs via sequential intervals of relatively stable gene expression states that are punctuated by abrupt transitions.
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