The morphogenetic significance of the first quartet micromeres for the development of the snailBithynia tentaculata

Embryonic organizer specification in the mud snail Ilyanassa obsoleta depends on intercellular signaling

In early embryos of the caenogastropod snail Ilyanassa obsoleta, cytoplasmic segregation of a polar lobe is required for establishment of the D quadrant founder cell, empowering its great-granddaughter macromere 3D to act as a single-celled organizer that induces ectodermal pattern along the secondary body axis of the embryo. We present evidence that polar lobe inheritance is not sufficient to specify 3D potential, but rather makes the D macromere lineage responsive to some intercellular signal(s) required for normal expression of 3D-specific phenotypes. Experimental removal of multiple micromeres resulted in loss of organizer-linked MAPK activation, complete and specific defects of organizer-dependent larval organs, and progressive cell cycle retardation, leading to equalization of the normally accelerated division schedule of 3D (relative to the third-order macromeres of the A, B and C quadrants). Ablation of the second-quartet micromere 2d greatly potentiated the effects of first micromere quartet ablation. Our findings link organizer activation in I. obsoleta to the putative ancestral spiralian mechanism in which a signal from micromeres leads to specification of 3D among four initially equivalent macromeres.

Cell-cell interactions determine the dorsoventral axis in embryos of an equally cleaving opisthobranch mollusc

Dorsoventral polarity in molluscan embryos can arise by two distinct mechanisms, where the mechanism employed is strongly correlated with the cleavage pattern of the early embryo. In species with unequal cleavage, the dorsal lineage, or "D quadrant", is determined in a cell-autonomous manner by the inheritance of cytoplasmic determinants. However, in gastropod molluscs with equal cleavage, cell-cell interactions are required to specify the fate of the dorsal blastomere. During the fifth cleavage interval in equally cleaving embryos, one of the vegetal macromeres makes exclusive contacts with the animal micromeres, and this macromere will give rise to the mesodermal precursor cell at the next division, thereby identifying the dorsal quadrant. This study examines D-quadrant determination in an equally cleaving species from a group of previously uninvestigated gastropods, the subclass Opisthobranchia. Blastomere ablation experiments were performed on embryos of Haminoea callidegenita to (i) determine the developmental potential of macromeres before and after fifth cleavage, and (ii) examine the role of micromere-macromere interactions in the establishment of bilateral symmetry. The results suggest that the macromeres are developmentally equivalent prior to fifth cleavage, but become nonequivalent soon afterward. The dorsoventral axis corresponds to the displacement of the micromeres over one macromere early in the fifth cleavage interval. This unusual cellular topology is hypothesized to result from constraints imposed on micromere-macromere interactions in an embryo that develops from a large egg and forms a stereoblastula (no cleavage cavity). Ablation of the entire first quarter of micromeres results in embryos which remain radially symmetrical in the vegetal hemisphere, indicating that micromere-macromere interactions are required for the elaboration of bilateral symmetry properties. Therefore, inductive interactions between cells may represent a general strategy for dorsoventral axis determination in equally cleaving gastropods.

Regional differences in the lateral mobility of plasma membrane lipids in a molluscan embryo

Regional and temporal differences in plasma membrane lipid mobility have been analyzed during the first three cleavage cycles of the embryo of the polar-lobe-forming mollusc Nassarius reticulatus by the fluorescence photobleaching recovery (FPR) method, using 1,1'-ditetradecyl 3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine iodide (C14diI) as a fluorescent lipid probe. During this period of development the lateral diffusion coefficient of membrane lipids is consistently greater in the vegetal polar lobe area as compared to the animal plasma membrane area (on average 30%), demonstrating the existence of an animal-vegetal polarity in plasma membrane properties. At third cleavage, the differences between animal and vegetal plasma membrane region become even more pronounced; in the four animal micromeres the diffusion coefficient (D) and mobile fraction (MF) are 2.9 +/- 0.2 X 10(-9) cm2/sec and 51 +/- 2%, respectively, while in the four vegetal macromeres D = 5.0 +/- 0.3 X 10(-9) cm2/sec and MF = 78 +/- 2%. Superimposed upon the observed animal-vegetal polarity, the lateral diffusion in the polar lobe membrane area shows a cell-cycle-dependent modulation. The highest mean values for D are reached during the S phase (ranging from 7.0 to 7.8 X 10(-9) cm2/sec in the three cycles measured), while at the end of G2 phase and during early mitosis mean values for D have decreased significantly (ranging from 5.0 to 5.9 X 10(-9) cm2/sec). Diffusion rates in the animal membranes of the embryo are constant during the three successive cell cycles (D = 4.3-5.0 X 10(-9) cm2/sec), except for a peak at the S phase of the first cell cycle (D = 6.0 X 10(-9) cm2/sec). These results are discussed in relation with previously observed ultrastructural heterogeneities in the Nassarius egg plasma membrane. It is speculated that the observed animal-vegetal polarity in the organization of the egg membrane might play an important role in the process of cell diversification during early development.