Meeting Abstract

29.2  Monday, Jan. 4  How many mouths are too many? Induction of oral fates in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis. HARMON, S.; BURTON, P.M.*; Wabash College; Wabash College burtonp@wabash.edu

Although embryogenesis, regeneration, and asexual reproduction are all common developmental modes within Metazoa, data directly comparing these modes remains sparse. The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is capable of embryogenesis, complete bidirectional regeneration, and asexual reproduction, providing a unique opportunity to understand how a single genome can accomplish three discrete developmental modes. We are currently focused on the mechanisms of regeneration in order to compare them to new and currently available embryonic data. Our previous studies have shown that that some developmental patterning genes (otx and Hox-like) are expressed in distinct ways across developmental modes. Current investigations include pharmacological agents that act on the Wnt pathway to promote or repress oral development in a variety of life history stages. Alsterpaullone induces oral fates in undifferentiated cells (e.g. blastemas and embryonic cells) without substantial increases in cell proliferation. LiCl represses oral development without increased levels of apoptosis. By investigating these findings across developmental modes and comparing them to existing embryonic data, we begin to clarify the relationship between all three developmental modes.