Meeting Abstract
The gene Brachyury belongs to the T-box family of transcription factors and is a target of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. First discovered in mouse, this gene is widely known for its conserved role in mesoderm formation and body axis patterning across bilaterian species. Despite its established function as a mesodermal marker, homologs of Brachyury have recently been discovered in diploblasts, including two paralogs (HyBra1 and HyBra2) in the freshwater cnidarian Hydra magnipapillata (Bielen et al., 2007). RNAseq data from our lab and collaborators indicated that two paralogous Brachyury genes are also expressed in the colonial hydrozoan, Hydractinia echinata. Moreover, both of these genes are highly upregulated in blastema tissue during head regeneration at 24 hours post head removal. We plan to compare spatial and temporal expression patterns of both Brachyury paralogs using in situ hybridization and qPCR at different time points during head regeneration in our lab’s model organism, Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus. Defining the expression patterns of these Brachyury genes during regeneration and in intact adult polyps will serve as an informative first step in investigating the role of this conserved gene in Hydractinia. We will compare our results to recent expression studies of Brachyury genes in other model cnidarians.
