Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Members of the netrin gene family have been identified in vertebrates, Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans and found to encode secreted molecules involved in axon guidance. Here I use the conserved function of netrins in triploblasts, coupled with the phylogenetic position of amphioxus (the closest living relative of the vertebrates), to investigate the evolution of an axon guidance cue in chordates. A single amphioxus netrin gene was isolated by PCR and cDNA library screening and named AmphiNetrin. The predicted AmphiNetrin protein showed high identity to other netrin family members but differed in that the third of three EGF repeats found in other netrins was absent. Molecular phylogene-tic analysis showed that despite the absent EGF repeat AmphiNetrin is most closely related to the vertebrate netrins. AmphiNetrin expression was identified in embryonic notochord and floor plate, a pattern similar to that of vertebrate netrin-1 expression. AmphiNetrin expression was also identified more widely in the posterior larval brain, and in the anterior extension of the notochord that underlies the anterior of the amphioxus brain. All of these areas of expression are correlated with developing axon trajectories: The floor plate with ventrally projecting somatic motor neurons and Rohde cell projections, the posterior brain with the ventral commissure and primary motor centre and the anterior extension of the notochord with ventrally projecting neurons associated with the median eye. Amphioxus is naturally cyclopaedic and also lacks the ventral brain cells that the induction of which results in the splitting of the vertebrate eye field and, when missing, result in cyclopaedia. These cells normally express netrins required for developing axon tracts in the brain, and the expression of AmphiNetrin in the anterior extension of the notochord underlying the brain may explain how amphioxus is able to maintain ventral guidance cues while lacking these cells.

Original publication

DOI

10.1007/s004270050322

Type

Journal article

Journal

Dev Genes Evol

Publication Date

07/2000

Volume

210

Pages

337 - 344

Keywords

Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Axons, Central Nervous System, Chordata, Nonvertebrate, Cloning, Molecular, Evolution, Molecular, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, In Situ Hybridization, Larva, Molecular Sequence Data, Nerve Growth Factors, Netrins, Notochord, Phylogeny, Protein Structure, Tertiary, RNA, Messenger, Sequence Alignment, Sequence Analysis, Sequence Homology, Amino Acid