Hydractiniid hydrozoan colonies are comprised of individual polyps connected by tube‐like stolons or a sheet‐like mat. Mat and stolons function to integrate the colony through continuous epithelia and shared gastrovascular cavity. Although mechanisms of hydrozoan polyp development have been well studied, little is known about the signaling processes governing the patterning of colonies. Here we investigate the Wnt receptor family Frizzled. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that hydrozoans possess four Frizzled orthologs. We find that one of these genes,
Fusion to form a chimera has been documented in many marine invertebrate taxa, including poriferans, cnidarians, bryozoans, and colonial ascidians. Allogenic interactions in chimeric ascidian colonies vary widely across taxonomic groups but are poorly characterized in the invasive colonial ascidian
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10460531
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Invertebrate Biology
- Volume:
- 138
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1077-8306
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Frizzled3 , shows a spatially restricted expression pattern in colony‐specific tissue in two hydractiniid hydrozoans,Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus andPodocoryna carnea , in a manner that corresponds to their distinct colony forms (stolonal mat inHydractinia and free stolons inPodocoryna ). Interestingly,Frizzled3 was lost in the genome ofHydra , which is a solitary polyp and thus lacks colony‐specific tissue. Current evidence suggests that the Wnt signaling pathway plays a key role in the evolution of colony diversity and colony loss in Hydrozoa. -
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