2026/03/12 by Thomas D. Lewin, Tosuke Sakagami, Keisuke Shimizu +10 · 2 voices · 6 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Body plan #Bone morphogenetic protein #Chordin #Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation #Gastrulation #Gene #Genome #Hedgehog signaling pathway #Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology #Mesoderm #Most recent common ancestor #Planarian Biology and Electrostimulation #Transcriptome
paper · doi:10.1038/s41467-026-70403-5
published in Nature Communications 17(1) (Nature Portfolio)
openalex publication_date 2026/03/12 · openalex created_date 2026/03/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The molecular control and ancestral state of dorsal-ventral patterning within spiralians remain unclear due to the remarkable diversity across species. Here we present a chromosome-level genome for the brachiopod Lingula anatina and apply functional transcriptomics to study dorsal-ventral patterning under BMP signalling control. We uncover asymmetrical activation of BMP signalling at the dorsal side of the gastrula, governed by ventral chordin expression and a 'seesaw' of BMP ligands. Using small-molecule drugs and recombinant proteins, we show that high BMP activity inhibits genes typically associated with neural patterning during gastrula and larval stages, similar to deuterostomes and non-spiralian protostomes. Our findings suggest deep conservation of this mechanism across all three major bilaterian clades, supported by striking similarities in BMP-regulated gene sets between brachiopods and Xenopus. We argue that the spiralian ancestor retained the ancestral bilaterian mechanism, although downstream network components have undergone developmental system drift.