A design logic for sequential segmentation across organisms

M. Fethullah Simsek*, Ertuğrul M. Özbudak

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Multitudes of organisms display metameric compartmentalization of their body plan. Segmentation of these compartments happens sequentially in diverse phyla. In several sequentially segmenting species, periodically active molecular clocks and signaling gradients have been found. The clocks are proposed to control the timing of segmentation, while the gradients are proposed to instruct the positions of segment boundaries. However, the identity of the clock and gradient molecules differs across species. Furthermore, sequential segmentation of a basal chordate, Amphioxus, continues at late stages when the small tail bud cell population cannot establish long-range signaling gradients. Thus, it remains to be explained how a conserved morphological trait (i.e., sequential segmentation) is achieved by using different molecules or molecules with different spatial profiles. Here, we first focus on sequential segmentation of somites in vertebrate embryos and then draw parallels with other species. Thereafter, we propose a candidate design principle that has the potential to answer this puzzling question.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5086-5093
Number of pages8
JournalFEBS Journal
Volume290
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2023

Funding

The graphical abstract was designed using BioRender.com . This work was funded by a US NIH (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) grant (R01HD103623) to EMÖ. We thank anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and Hannah Seawall for editing the manuscript.

Keywords

  • cell signaling
  • clock
  • pattern formation
  • segmentation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

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