Journal Article
Pescoids and chimeras to probe early evo-devo in the fish Astyanax mexicanus
Torres-Paz, J. and Rétaux, S.
Record Number:
5339
Year:
2021
Journal:
Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
Pages:
1-11
Volume:
9:667296
Abstract:
The fish species Astyanax mexicanus with its sighted and blind eco-morphotypes has
become an original model to challenge vertebrate developmental evolution. Recently,
we demonstrated that phenotypic evolution can be impacted by early developmental
events starting from the production of oocytes in the fish ovaries. A. mexicanus offers
an amenable model to test the influence of maternal determinants on cell fate decisions
during early development, yet the mechanisms by which the information contained in the
eggs is translated into specific developmental programs remain obscure due to the lack
of specific tools in this emergent model. Here we describe methods for the generation
of pescoids from yolkless-blastoderm explants to test the influence of embryonic and
extraembryonic tissues on cell fate decisions, as well as the production of chimeric
embryos obtained by intermorph cell transplantations to probe cell autonomous or
non-autonomous processes. We show that Astyanax pescoids have the potential
to recapitulate the main ontogenetic events observed in intact embryos, including
the internalization of mesodermal progenitors and eye development, as followed with
zic:GFP reporter lines. In addition, intermorph cell grafts resulted in proper integration
of exogenous cells into the embryonic tissues, with lineages becoming more restricted
from mid-blastula to gastrula. The implementation of these approaches in A. mexicanus
will bring new light on the cascades of events, from the maternal pre-patterning of the
early embryo to the evolution of brain regionalization.
Keywords: Zic1:GFP lines, evo-devo, eye, gastruloids, cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, ntl, chimeric embryos
Times Cited:
1
Relevent Species: