Search results for " embryo development"
showing 7 items of 7 documents
Gene expression changes after parental exposure to metals in the sea urchin affect timing of genetic programme of embryo development
2021
Simple Summary Intergenerational and transgenerational effects, in which exposure to stressors in a parental generation affects the phenotype of the offspring have been connected to anthropic impacts on biological systems. Therefore, environmental stress experienced inside a generation, particularly during gametogenesis, may lead to erroneous patterns in their offspring just emerging at early developmental stages. In this scenario, the sea urchin embryo represents a suitable model for integrating analyses of gene expression through embryogenesis with developmental alteration induced by environmental stressors. Herein we provide pieces of evidence for the alteration of the gene regulatory ne…
Cadmium induces the expression of specific stress proteins in sea urchin embryos.
2004
Abstract Marine organisms are highly sensitive to many environmental stresses, and consequently, the analysis of their bio-molecular responses to different stress agents is very important for the understanding of putative repair mechanisms. Sea urchin embryos represent a simple though significant model system to test how specific stress can simultaneously affect development and protein expression. Here, we used Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin embryos to study the effects of time-dependent continuous exposure to subacute/sublethal cadmium concentrations. We found that, between 15 and 24 h of exposure, the synthesis of a specific set of stress proteins (90, 72–70, 56, 28, and 25 kDa) was ind…
Metallothionein family in sea urchin: Genes and their expression during embryo development and following exposure to stressors
2017
Echinoderms represent a very fascinating phylum belonging to deuterostome superphylum, including also hemichordates, tunicates and vertebrates. Among echinoderms, sea urchin species are studied worldwide as excellent model organisms for the study of developmental biology, and are suitable as bioindicators. During a study on the defense strategies activated by Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin embryos in response to CdCl2, we isolated five metallothionein (MT) cDNAs. Two of the five MT genes were constitutively expressed, whereas the other three genes appear to be specifically switched-on in response to cadmium treatment. With the aim of better understanding the evolutionary relationships, fu…
Changes in sex ratio from fertilization to birth in assisted-reproductive-treatment cycles
2014
Background: In Western gender-neutral countries, the sex ratio at birth is estimated to be approximately 1.06. This ratio is lower than the estimated sex ratio at fertilization which ranges from 1.07 to 1.70 depending on the figures of sex ratio at birth and differential embryo/fetal mortality rates taken into account to perform these estimations. Likewise, little is known about the sex ratio at implantation in natural and assisted-reproduction-treatment (ART) cycles. In this bioessay, we aim to estimate the sex ratio at fertilization and implantation using data from embryos generated by standard in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in preimplantation gene…
The essential role of the phosphorylated pathway of serine biosynthesis inArabidopsis
2013
[EN] In plants, 3 different pathways of serine biosynthesis have been described: the Glycolate pathway, which is associated with photorespiration, and 2 non-photorespiratory pathways, the Glycerate and the Phosphorylated pathways. The Phosphorylated Pathway of Serine Biosynthesis (PPSB) has been known since the 1950s, but has been studied relatively little, probably because it was considered of minor significance as compared with the Glycolate pathway. In the associated study1 , we described for the first time in plants the in vivo functional characterization of the PPSB, by targeting the phosphoserine phosphatase (PSP1), the last enzyme of the pathway. Following a gain—and loss-of-function…
GENE STRUCTURE, DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION AND PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE METALLOTHIONEIN GENE FAMILY OF THE SEA URCHIN PARACENTROTUS LIVIDUS
2017
Metallothioneins (MT) are small and cysteine-rich proteins that bind metal ions such as zinc, copper, cadmium, and nickel1. Several functions were proposed for these peptides, ranging from toxic metal protection to physiological metal homeostasis, free radical scavenging, oxidative stress protection, antiapoptotic defense, control of the redox status of the cell and also roles during development. Previously, we reported the identification of five different MT homologues (PlMT4-8) from the Mediterranean sea urchin species P. lividus2. In order to shed some light on MT gene structure and evolution, we cloned seven P. lividus MT genes, comparing them to Echinodermata and Chordata genes3. Moreo…