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Wnt8a is one of the candidate genes that play essential roles in the elongation of the seahorse prehensile tail

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Abstract

Seahorses are a hallmark of specialized morphological features due to their elongated prehensile tail. However, the underlying genomic grounds of seahorse tail development remain elusive. Herein, we evaluated the roles of essential genes from the Wnt gene family for the tail developmental process in the lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus). Comparative genomic analysis revealed that the Wnt gene family is conserved in seahorses. The expression profiles and in situ hybridization suggested that Wnt5a, Wnt8a, and Wnt11 may participate in seahorse tail development. Like in other teleosts, Wnt5a and Wnt11 were found to regulate the development of the tail axial mesoderm and tail somitic mesoderm, respectively. However, a significantly extended expression period of Wnt8a during seahorse tail development was observed. Signaling pathway analysis further showed that Wnt8a up-regulated the expression of the tail axial mesoderm gene (Shh), while interaction analysis indicated that Wnt8a could promote the expression of Wnt11. In summary, our results indicate that the special extended expression period of Wnt8a might promote caudal tail axis formation, which contributes to the formation of the elongated tail of the seahorse.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the K.C.Wong Education Foundation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 41825013, 41706178, 41576145, 41806189, 32000350), the China postdoctoral science foundation grant (no. 2019M663151), the Guangdong Special Support Program of Youth Scientific and Technological Innovation (2017TQ04Z269). We are also grateful to Wenqi Hu for help with cell culture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Bo Zhang, Geng Qin, Yanhong Zhang, Chunyan Li & Qiang Lin

  2. Institution of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Bo Zhang, Geng Qin, Yanhong Zhang, Chunyan Li & Qiang Lin

  3. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511458, China

    Bo Zhang, Geng Qin, Yanhong Zhang, Chunyan Li & Qiang Lin

  4. School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Lili Qu & Chunlei Cang

  5. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Qiang Lin

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  1. Bo Zhang
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  2. Geng Qin
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  3. Lili Qu
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  4. Yanhong Zhang
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  5. Chunyan Li
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Contributions

QL and BZ designed the study, performed laboratory protocols, and analyzed bioinformatics. BZ, GQ and YHZ prepared the tables and figures. BZ and CYL carried out the qRT-PCR and in situ hybridization analysis. LLQ and CLC helped with the experiments. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qiang Lin.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants. All animal experiments were conducted in accordance with established guidelines and approved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IACUC #160413).

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Edited by Jiamei Li.

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Zhang, B., Qin, G., Qu, L. et al. Wnt8a is one of the candidate genes that play essential roles in the elongation of the seahorse prehensile tail. Mar Life Sci Technol 3, 416–426 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42995-021-00099-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42995-021-00099-7

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