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
    1. Davis CA
    2. Hitz BC
    3. Sloan CA
    4. Chan ET
    5. Davidson JM
    6. Gabdank I
    7. Hilton JA
    8. Jain K
    9. Baymuradov UK
    10. Narayanan AK
    11. Onate KC
    12. Graham K
    13. Miyasato SR
    14. Dreszer TR
    15. Strattan JS
    16. Jolanki O
    17. Tanaka FY
    18. Cherry JM
    (2018) The Encyclopedia of DNA elements (ENCODE): Data portal update.
    ENCFF478FHR ENCFF955MIX ENCFF210MKE ENCFF431KXE ENCFF275OKU ENCFF426VDN ENCFF002LRT ENCFF576SKK ENCFF592ZRO ENCFF798QON ENCFF336VLY ENCFF407NCE ENCFF572CMB ENCFF695FLH ENCFF130WMA ENCFF224JRS ENCFF337ETV ENCFF535DAV ENCFF540ZEZ ENCFF762LUG ENCFF279LMU ENCFF518FYP ENCFF377YCK ENCFF086MTT ENCFF064NKM ENCFF406EUS ENCFF258GFE ENCFF031SEH ENCFF694SPD ENCFF051GLX ENCFF304CCF ENCFF655OFT ENCFF483MKX ENCFF007HEF ENCFF550NVA ENCFF848NLJ ENCFF929LOH ENCFF382CMV ENCFF360MVK ENCFF159HYY ENCFF618OJP ENCFF329VCX ENCFF341HRL ENCFF894ZND ENCFF702NAP ENCFF109LQF ENCFF146ZCO ENCFF154RTC ENCFF709ZKC ENCFF040SPZ ENCFF912PDM ENCFF141JSP ENCFF985YPA ENCFF064JRU ENCFF774MTJ ENCFF376TIM ENCFF612QXM ENCFF584HRP ENCFF353TSI ENCFF583FIG ENCFF143XEE ENCFF590KVK ENCFF107GOQ ENCFF370RSB ENCFF906UHI ENCFF034BFB ENCFF928FUL ENCFF872PTK ENCFF982ZSW ENCFF454BSG ENCFF035UJZ ENCFF471VWH ENCFF501QKH ENCFF113PQF ENCFF322CQL ENCFF622HGW ENCFF746ASR ENCFF232GHI ENCFF484RFZ ENCFF658OKS ENCFF232PNH ENCFF403VCU ENCFF688KUB ENCFF815LLD ENCFF557YZH ENCFF636YTN ENCFF142IPK ENCFF387ORM ENCFF877QHQ ENCFF877LFX ENCFF994LOF ENCFF398KDL ENCFF618YMO ENCFF598ZGD ENCFF924SYL ENCFF809YXL ENCFF685HFN ENCFF697FTK ENCFF887QYY ENCFF171GOW ENCFF790TWE ENCFF635MWR ENCFF818OKO ENCFF978ZGA ENCFF645HNE ENCFF237MEG ENCFF738MPC ENCFF905ZTZ ENCFF914USA ENCFF417HDL ENCFF105XRN ENCFF302YAI ENCFF502HEW ENCFF978POS ENCFF107SIK ENCFF143SWD ENCFF311YQH ENCFF940KCT.

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).

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.

Metrics

  • 2,544
    views
  • 394
    downloads
  • 13
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  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

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.62865

Further reading

    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Physics of Living Systems
    Fridtjof Brauns, Nikolas H Claussen ... Boris I Shraiman
    Research Article

    Shape changes of epithelia during animal development, such as convergent extension, are achieved through the concerted mechanical activity of individual cells. While much is known about the corresponding large-scale tissue flow and its genetic drivers, fundamental questions regarding local control of contractile activity on the cellular scale and its embryo-scale coordination remain open. To address these questions, we develop a quantitative, model-based analysis framework to relate cell geometry to local tension in recently obtained time-lapse imaging data of gastrulating Drosophila embryos. This analysis systematically decomposes cell shape changes and T1 rearrangements into internally driven, active, and externally driven, passive, contributions. Our analysis provides evidence that germ band extension is driven by active T1 processes that self-organize through positive feedback acting on tensions. More generally, our findings suggest that epithelial convergent extension results from the controlled transformation of internal force balance geometry which combines the effects of bottom-up local self-organization with the top-down, embryo-scale regulation by gene expression.

    1. Computational and Systems Biology
    2. Developmental Biology
    Rosalío Reyes, Arthur D Lander, Marcos Nahmad
    Research Article Updated

    Understanding the principles underlying the design of robust, yet flexible patterning systems is a key problem in developmental biology. In the Drosophila wing, Hedgehog (Hh) signaling determines patterning outputs using dynamical properties of the Hh gradient. In particular, the pattern of collier (col) is established by the steady-state Hh gradient, whereas the pattern of decapentaplegic (dpp), is established by a transient gradient of Hh known as the Hh overshoot. Here, we use mathematical modeling to suggest that this dynamical interpretation of the Hh gradient results in specific robustness and precision properties. For instance, the location of the anterior border of col, which is subject to self-enhanced ligand degradation is more robustly specified than that of dpp to changes in morphogen dosage, and we provide experimental evidence of this prediction. However, the anterior border of dpp expression pattern, which is established by the overshoot gradient is much more precise to what would be expected by the steady-state gradient. Therefore, the dynamical interpretation of Hh signaling offers tradeoffs between robustness and precision to establish tunable patterning properties in a target-specific manner.