Abstract
Early embryogenesis in nematodes as seen in Caenorhabditis elegans and many other species of this phylum features several characteristic events. These include the visible presence of a germline from the very beginning generating different somatic lineages via asymmetric cleavages, the absence of a coeloblastula and a unique type of gastrulation with immigration of just two gut precursor cells. Here it is shown by using Nomarski optics that development of the freshwater nematode Tobrilus diversipapillatus differs from this pattern in two prominent aspects. (1) No asymmetric cleavages and no distinct cell lineages are generated; (2) in contrast to all other nematodes studied so far, a prominent coeloblastula is formed and gastrulation resembles the “classical” pattern found all over the animal kingdom. These developmental peculiarities are considered to be plesiomorphic and thus the order “Triplonchida”, to which Tobrilus belongs, may occupy a phylogenetic position at the base of the nematode phylum. The findings reported here allow us to reject a number of conceivable correlations between the type of gastrulation and other developmental parameters.
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Acknowledgements
Most of the work described here was done during a sabbatical stay in the Department of Nematology, University of California, Riverside. I thank the Heinrich-Hertz-Stiftung, Düsseldorf, for financial support and members of the De Ley laboratory for hospitality and advice, Paul De Ley for species identification, Vladimir Malakhov, Michael Kroiher and Jens Schulze for discussion, P.D.L. and Randy Cassada for useful comments, and Margarete Schierenberg for invaluable help in isolating nematodes.
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Schierenberg, E. Unusual cleavage and gastrulation in a freshwater nematode: developmental and phylogenetic implications. Dev Genes Evol 215, 103–108 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-004-0454-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-004-0454-9