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Updated: Nov 17, 2025
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The Power of Simplicity: Sea Urchin Embryos as in Vivo Developmental Models for Studying Complex Cell-to-cell Signaling Network Interactions
Published on: February 16, 2017
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Functional contribution of DCLKs in sea urchin development
Derek Xu1, Florence D M Wavreil1, Ashley Waldron1
1MCB Department, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Summary
Doublecortin-like kinases (DCLKs) regulate cell plasticity. In sea urchin embryos, DCLKs respond to damage by transiently increasing expression, influencing development in a context-dependent manner.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Biology
- Cell Biology
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- Doublecortin-like kinases (DCLKs) are Ser/Thr kinases crucial for neuronal development.
- Their roles in regulating stem cell and cancer cell proliferation and differentiation are emerging but not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the function of DCLKs in plasticity regulation.
- To utilize the sea urchin embryo, a model of highly regulative development, to explore DCLK functions.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of DCLK transcripts and protein expression during sea urchin embryogenesis.
- Knockdown experiments to assess the impact of DCLK deficiency on development.
- Induction of damage to observe DCLK expression changes and subsequent developmental outcomes under varying conditions (tumor-prone vs. tumor-suppressive).
Main Results:
- DCLKs transcripts and proteins are present throughout early sea urchin embryogenesis, with enrichment in mesenchymal cells post-gastrulation.
- DCLK knockdown resulted in developmental delays and defects.
- Embryo damage led to ectopic DCLK expression in damaged ectoderm.
- DCLK expression was upregulated or downregulated post-damage in tumor-prone or -suppressive conditions, respectively, both leading to severe developmental defects.
Conclusions:
- Transient upregulation of DCLKs is implicated in the damage response during both normal and abnormal development.
- The developmental outcomes following DCLK upregulation are context-dependent.
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