RÖTTINGER , Eric

The capacity to regenerate lost or injured body parts is a widespread feature within metazoans and has intrigued scientists for centuries. One of the most extreme types of regeneration is the so-called whole body regenerative capacity, which enables regeneration of fully functional organisms from isolated body parts. While not exclusive to this...

The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis has emerged as a powerful research model to understand at the gene regulatory network level, to what extend regeneration recapitulates embryonic development. Such comparison involves massive transcriptomic analysis, a routine approach for identifying differential gene expression. Here we present a workflow...

Animal regeneration is a biological process leading to the reformation of injured or lost tissues/body parts. One of the most fascinating regenerative phenomena is the so-called whole-body regeneration, leading to the reformation of fully functional organisms within days after bisection. The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is currently...

Regeneration, the ability to restore lost parts of the body, is a widespread phenomenon in animals. While this ability is somehow limited in classical developmental model organisms, a variety of animals are able to regenerate complex structures such as limbs or important parts of their body, upon injury. Despite the

The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is an emerging research model to study embryonic development and regeneration at the molecular and global transcriptomic level. Transcriptomics analysis is now routinely used to detect differential expression at the genome level. Here we present the latest procedures for isolating high-quality RNA required...

The ability to perform muscle contractions is one of the most important and distinctive features of eumetazoans. As the sister group to bilaterians, cnidarians (sea anemones, corals, jellyfish, and hydroids) hold an informative phylogenetic position for understanding muscle evolution. Here, we review current knowledge on muscle function,...

The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis has emerged as a powerful research model to understand at the gene regulatory network level, to what extend regeneration recapitulates embryonic development. Such comparison involves massive transcriptomic analysis, a routine approach for identifying differential gene expression. Here we present a workflow...

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International audience

Understanding the functional relationship between intracellular factors and extracellular signals is required for reconstructing gene regulatory networks (GRN) involved in complex biological processes. One of the best-studied bilaterian GRNs describes endomesoderm specification and predicts that both mesoderm and endoderm arose from a common...

As whole genome and transcriptome sequencing gets cheaper and faster, a great number of 'exotic' animal models are emerging, rapidly adding valuable data to the ever-expanding Evo-Devo field. All these new organisms serve as a fantastic resource for the research community, but the sheer amount of data, some published, some not, makes detailed...

Hemichordates are a deuterostome phylum, the sister group to echinoderms, and closely related to chordates. They have thus been used to gain insights into the origins of deuterostome and chordate body plans. Developmental studies of this group have a long and distinguished history. Recent improvements in animal husbandry, functional tool...

We report the expression patterns of three transcripts encoding RNA-binding proteins during early development of the Mediterranean sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. Two of these genes encode KH-domains RNA-binding proteins closely related to the vertebrate neuro-oncological ventral antigen 1 (Nova) and RING Finger and KH-domain (RKHD). The...

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Reverse genetics and next-generation sequencing unlocked a new era in biology. It is now possible to identify an animal(s) with the unique biology most relevant to a particular question and rapidly generate tools to functionally dissect that biology. This review highlights the rise of one such novel model system, the starlet sea anemone...

Understanding genetic interactions during early development of a given organism, is the first step toward unveiling gene regulatory networks (GRNs) that govern a biological process of interest. Predicting such interactions from large expression datasets by performing targeted knock-down/knock-out approaches is a challenging task. We use the...

Little is known about the origin of the inductive signal that translates the amputation stress into a cooperative cellular response. By studying the process underlying the reformation of lost body parts in the anthozoan cnidarian Nematostella vectensis, we identified a regeneration-inducing structure that, via a tissue crosstalk, is responsible...

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In the sea urchin embryo, the oral-aboral axis is specified after fertilization by mechanisms that are largely unknown. We report that early sea urchin embryos express Nodal and Antivin in the presumptive oral ectoderm and demonstrate that these genes control formation of the oral-aboral axis. Overexpression of nodal converted the whole...

Cnidarian primary cell cultures have a strong potential to become a universal tool to assess stress-response mechanisms at the cellular level. However, primary cell cultures are time-consuming regarding their establishment and maintenance. Cryopreservation is a commonly used approach to provide stable cell stocks for experiments, but it is yet...

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The asymmetric positioning of internal organs on the left or right side of the body is highly conserved in vertebrates and relies on a Nodal signaling pathway acting on the left side of the embryo. Whether the same pathway also regulates left-right asymmetry in invertebrates and what is the evolutionary origin of the mechanisms controlling...

We describe a protocol for microinjection of embryos for an emerging model system, the cnidarian sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. In addition, we provide protocols for carrying out overexpression and knockdown of gene function through microinjection of in vitro-translated mRNAs or gene-specific oligonucleotide morpholinos (MOs),...

Abstract Optimized laboratory conditions for research models are crucial for the success of scientific projects. This includes the control of the entire life cycle, access to all developmental stages and maintaining stable physiological conditions. Reducing the life cycle of a research model can also enhance the access to biological material...

Nodal signaling plays crucial roles in vertebrate developmental processes such as endoderm and mesoderm formation, and axial patterning events along the anteroposterior, dorsoventral and left-right axes. In echinoderms, Nodal plays an essential role in the establishment of the dorsoventral axis and left-right asymmetry, but not in endoderm or...