Conserved Signaling Pathways in the Gut.

Fiche publication

Date publication

juillet 2024

Journal

International journal of molecular sciences

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Dr PLATEROTI Michelina

Tous les auteurs :
Gerdol M, Greco S, Marino R, Locascio A, Plateroti M, Sirakov M

Lien Pubmed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39063090

Résumé

The urochordate exhibits numerous functional and morphogenetic traits that are shared with vertebrate models. While prior investigations have identified several analogies between the gastrointestinal tract (i.e., gut) of and mice, the molecular mechanisms responsible for these similarities remain poorly understood. This study seeks to address this knowledge gap by investigating the transcriptional landscape of the adult stage gut. Through comparative genomics analyses, we identified several evolutionarily conserved components of signaling pathways of pivotal importance for gut development (such as WNT, Notch, and TGFβ-BMP) and further evaluated their expression in three distinct sections of the gastrointestinal tract by RNA-seq. Despite the presence of lineage-specific gene gains, losses, and often unclear orthology relationships, the investigated pathways were characterized by well-conserved molecular machinery, with most components being expressed at significant levels throughout the entire intestinal tract of . We also showed significant differences in the transcriptional landscape of the stomach and intestinal tract, which were much less pronounced between the proximal and distal portions of the intestine. This study confirms that is a reliable model system for comparative studies, supporting the use of ascidians as a model to study gut physiology.