Abstract
In cnidarians, long-term ecological success relies on sexual reproduction. The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, which has emerged as an important model organism for developmental studies, can be induced for spawning by temperature elevation and light exposure. To uncover molecular mechanisms and pathways underlying spawning, we characterized the transcriptome of Nematostella females before and during spawning induction. We identified an array of processes involving numerous receptors, circadian clock components, cytoskeleton, and extracellular transcripts that are upregulated upon spawning induction. Concurrently, processes related to the cell cycle, fatty acid metabolism, and other housekeeping functions are downregulated. Real-time qPCR revealed that light exposure has a minor effect on expression levels of most examined transcripts, implying that temperature change is a stronger inducer for spawning in Nematostella. Our findings reveal the potential mechanisms that may enable the mesenteries to serve as a gonad-like tissue for the developing oocytes and expand our understanding of sexual reproduction in cnidarians.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 15451 |
Journal | Scientific Reports |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 29 Jul 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021, The Author(s).
Funding
This work was supported by the Moore Foundation “Unwinding the Circadian Clock in a Sea Anemone” (Grant number 4598 to O.L.).
Funders | Funder number |
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Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation | |
Blanche Moore Foundation | 4598 |