<p> Adult echinoderms form a mineralized skeleton, but only sea urchins and brittle stars form larval skeletons. In the sea urchin <i>Strongylocentrotus purpuratus</i>, the gene regulatory network (GRN) leading to skeleton formation has been characterized. This <i>S. purpuratus</i> GRN includes several members of the <i>ets</i> family, including <i> Erg, Ets1/2</i> and <i>Gabp</i>. The brittle star <i> Ophiocoma wendtii</i> forms an embryonic skeleton similar to <i> S. purpuratus</i>. The goal of this proposal is to see if expression of the <i>ets</i> family members is conserved as part of the skeletogenic GRN in <i>O. wendtii</i>. Four genes were identified in <i> O. wendtii</i>; homologous to <i>S. purpuratus Erg, Ets1/2, Ets4 </i> and <i>Gabp</i> based on phylogenetic analysis. The coding sequences of these <i>O. wendtii</i> genes were obtained and their temporal expression was determined. These results suggest that sea urchins and brittle stars share a GRN leading to skeleton formation that has been activated in the embryos of both.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1523052 |
| Date | 09 August 2013 |
| Creators | Hamilton, Melissa Kaye |
| Publisher | California State University, Long Beach |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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