1. Molecular developmental mechanism in polypterid fish provides insight into the origin of vertebrate lungs
- Author
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Norifumi Tatsumi, Ritsuko Kobayashi, Masataka Okabe, Tohru Yano, Koji Fujimura, Norihiro Okada, and Masatsugu Noda
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Fish Proteins ,Male ,Embryo, Nonmammalian ,Chick Embryo ,Article ,Mesoderm ,03 medical and health sciences ,stomatognathic system ,biology.animal ,medicine ,Animals ,Bichir ,Enhancer ,Coelacanth ,Lung ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,Latimeria ,Fishes ,Vertebrate ,Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental ,Anatomy ,respiratory system ,biology.organism_classification ,Biological Evolution ,Polypterus senegalus ,respiratory tract diseases ,body regions ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Enhancer Elements, Genetic ,Evolutionary biology ,Larva ,Female ,Chickens - Abstract
The lung is an important organ for air breathing in tetrapods and originated well before the terrestrialization of vertebrates. Therefore, to better understand lung evolution, we investigated lung development in the extant basal actinopterygian fish Senegal bichir (Polypterus senegalus). First, we histologically confirmed that lung development in this species is very similar to that of tetrapods. We also found that the mesenchymal expression patterns of three genes that are known to play important roles in early lung development in tetrapods (Fgf10, Tbx4 and Tbx5) were quite similar to those of tetrapods. Moreover, we found a Tbx4 core lung mesenchyme-specific enhancer (C-LME) in the genomes of bichir and coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) and experimentally confirmed that these were functional in tetrapods. These findings provide the first molecular evidence that the developmental program for lung was already established in the common ancestor of actinopterygians and sarcopterygians.
- Published
- 2016
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