Developmental hourglass and heterochronic shifts in fin and limb development

  1. Koh Onimaru  Is a corresponding author
  2. Kaori Tatsumi
  3. Chiharu Tanegashima
  4. Mitsutaka Kadota
  5. Osamu Nishimura
  6. Shigehiro Kuraku  Is a corresponding author
  1. RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Japan
  2. RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, Japan

Abstract

How genetic changes are linked to morphological novelties and developmental constraints remains elusive. Here we investigate genetic apparatuses that distinguish fish fins from tetrapod limbs by analyzing transcriptomes and open chromatin regions (OCRs). Specifically, we compared mouse forelimb buds with the pectoral fin buds of an elasmobranch, the brown-banded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum). A transcriptomic comparison with an accurate orthology map revealed both a mass heterochrony and hourglass-shaped conservation of gene expression between fins and limbs. Furthermore, open-chromatin analysis suggested that access to conserved regulatory sequences is transiently increased during mid-stage limb development. During this stage, stage-specific and tissue-specific OCRs were also enriched. Together, early and late stages of fin/limb development are more permissive to mutations than middle stages, which may have contributed to major morphological changes during the fin-to-limb evolution. We hypothesize that the middle stages are constrained by regulatory complexity that results from dynamic and tissue-specific transcriptional controls.

Data availability

RNA-seq and ATAC-seq datasets generated during the current study are available in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) repository under accession number GSE136445. Data to reproduce this study are deposited in figshare (https://figshare.com/articles/Onimaru_et_al_Supplementary_Data/9928541; DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.9928541). Code for clustering analysis is available at https://github.com/koonimaru/easy_heatmapper.

The following data sets were generated
The following previously published data sets were used
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Article and author information

Author details

  1. Koh Onimaru

    Laboratory for Bioinformatics Research, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Wako, Japan
    For correspondence
    koh.onimaru@riken.jp
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2428-9510
  2. Kaori Tatsumi

    Laboratory for Phyloinformatics, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Japan
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Chiharu Tanegashima

    Laboratory for Phyloinformatics, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Japan
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Mitsutaka Kadota

    Phyloinformatics Unit, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, 2-2-3 Minatojima-minamimachi,Chuo-ku, Japan
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Osamu Nishimura

    Phyloinformatics Unit, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, 2-2-3 Minatojima-minamimachi,Chuo-ku, Japan
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1969-2580
  6. Shigehiro Kuraku

    Laboratory for Phyloinformatics, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Japan
    For correspondence
    shigehiro.kuraku@riken.jp
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1464-8388

Funding

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (17K15132)

  • Koh Onimaru

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (N/A)

  • Koh Onimaru
  • Kaori Tatsumi
  • Chiharu Tanegashima
  • Mitsutaka Kadota
  • Osamu Nishimura
  • Shigehiro Kuraku

RIKEN (N/A)

  • Koh Onimaru

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Animal experiments were conducted in accordance with the guidelines approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), RIKEN Kobe Branch, and experiments involving mice were approved by IACUC (K2017-ER032).

Reviewing Editor

  1. Karen E Sears, University of California, Los Angeles, United States

Version history

  1. Received: September 7, 2020
  2. Accepted: February 1, 2021
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: February 9, 2021 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: March 4, 2021 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2021, Onimaru et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Koh Onimaru
  2. Kaori Tatsumi
  3. Chiharu Tanegashima
  4. Mitsutaka Kadota
  5. Osamu Nishimura
  6. Shigehiro Kuraku
(2021)
Developmental hourglass and heterochronic shifts in fin and limb development
eLife 10:e62865.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.62865

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