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Figure 1. BMP signaling is activated in ANB cells. (A) Schematic illustration of the anterior
border of the neural plate in ascidian late gastrula and early neurula embryos. Because
embryos are bilaterally symmetrical, names of individual cells are indicated only in the left
half, and are prefixed with IDs shown next to the illustration, e.g., the left upper cell of the
late gastrula embryo is called a9.36. Vertical bars indicate sister cell relationships. (B, C)
Immunostaining of (B) a late gastrula embryo and (C) an early neurula embryo to detect
phosphorylated Smad1/5/9 (pSmad1/5/9). ANB cells were marked by Foxc>GFP expression,
detected with an anti-GFP antibody. Note that GFP was detected only on the right side
because of mosaic incorporation. Right images are overlaid in pseudocolor. The brightness
and contrast of these photographs were adjusted linearly. ANB cells are enclosed by broken
lines. Note that strong signals are observed in the anterior medial ANB cells and relatively
weak signals are also observed in the remaining ANB cells. Dorsal views are shown. The
scale bar in (B) represents 50 μm.
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Figure 2. Admp and BMP5/6/7/8 are expressed in ANB cells. (A-G) In situ hybridization
for (A,C) Admp (magenta) expression at (A) the late gastrula stage and (C) early neurula
stage, and for (E, G) Bmp5/6/7/8 (magenta) expression at (E) the early neurula stage and (G)
the middle neurula stage. Foxc in (A) marks ANB cells (green). Foxg in (C) and (E) marks the
most anterior and posterior rows of the ANB region (green). Six1/2 marks the most posterior
row of the ANB (green), although this gene is also expressed in the two flanking cells on both
sides of the ANB. The results shown in (A), (C), and (E) are illustrated in (B), (D), and (F),
respectively. Dorsal views are shown. (H, I) Optical slices of pSmad1/5/9 immunostaining of
(H) an unperturbed control early neurula embryo and (I) an early neurula embryo injected
with the Admp MO (green). Nuclei are stained with DAPI (gray). ANB cells are marked by
arrowheads. Photographs are pseudocolored, and lateral views are shown. (J) Quantification
of fluorescence intensities of signals for pSmad1/5/9 in the ANB region of control
unperturbed embryos and Admp morphants. Each dot represents relative signal intensities of a
line of four medial ANB cells, and bars represent median values. Relative intensities were
calculated by dividing sums of pSmad1/5/9 signals of four ANB cells with sums of DAPI
signals of the same cells. As we used tyramide signal amplification, signal levels might not be
amplified linearly. However, a Wilcoxon’s rank sum test indicated that signal levels are
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significantly different between the control and experimental specimens. The scale bar in (A)
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represents 50 μm.
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Figure 3. Chordin and Noggin are expressed in cells next to the ANB cells. (A-D) In situ
hybridization for (A) Foxc (green) and Chordin (magenta), (B) Foxc (green) and Noggin
(magenta) at late gastrula stage, and for (C) Foxg (green) and Chordin (magenta), and (D)
Foxg (green) and Noggin (magenta) at the early neurula stage. Nuclei were stained with DAPI
(gray). Photographs are pseudocolored Z-projected image stacks. Dorsal views are shown.
Note that the anterior row of the ANB is not visible in (D). (E) Optical slices of pSmad1/5/9
immunostaining of an unperturbed control early neurula embryo and early neurula embryos
injected with Foxc>Chordin or Foxc>Noggin. ANB cells are marked with arrowheads.
Lateral views are shown. The scale bar in (A) represents 50 μm. (F) Quantification of
fluorescence intensities of signals for pSmad1/5/9 in the ANB region of unperturbed control
embryos and embryos injected with Foxc>Chordin or Foxc>Noggin. Each dot represents
relative signal intensities of a line of four medial ANB cells, and bars represent median
values. Relative intensities were calculated by dividing sums of pSmad1/5/9 signals of four
ANB cells with sums of DAPI signals of the same cells. As we used tyramide signal
amplification, signal levels might not be amplified linearly. However, Wilcoxon’s rank sum
tests indicated that signal levels are significantly different between the control and
experimental specimens.
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Figure 4. Suppression of BMP signaling activity affects expression of Foxg and Six1/2.
(A) A dorsal view of in situ hybridization for Foxg in an embryo in which Foxc>Noggin was
introduced by electroporation. Expression of Foxg in the posterior row (white arrowhead) was
lost, while expression in the anterior row was not affected in this embryo (black arrowhead).
(B) Percentages of embryos that normally expressed Foxg, or lost Foxg expression. (C) A
dorsal view of in situ hybridization for Six1/2 in an embryo in which Foxc>Noggin was
introduced by electroporation. Expression of Six1/2 in the ANB region was lost or greatly
reduced (white arrowheads). (D) Percentages of embryos that normally expressed or lost
Six1/2 expression in the posterior row of the ANB region of normal and embryos
electroporated with Foxc>Noggin. (E) Percentages of embryos that normally expressed or
lost Six1/2 expression in one or more ANB cells in embryos injected with Foxc>Noggin at
different concentrations. (F) Percentages of embryos that ectopically expressed Six1/2 in
embryos injected with Foxc>Noggin at different concentrations. (G) A dorsal view of an
embryo in which Foxc>Noggin was injected at 20 ng/μL, expressed Six1/2 ectopically
(arrowheads). The scale bar in (A) represents 50 μm.
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Figure 5. BMP signaling activity is required for proper palp formation. (A) Morphology
of the trunk of larvae developed from (A) a control unperturbed egg and (B) an egg
electroporated with the Foxc>Noggin construct. Two of three palp protrusions are visible in
this larva. We examined 16 control larvae and 24 experimental larvae, and all of them
exhibited phenotypes represented by these photographs. (C-F) In situ hybridization for Foxg
in (C) a control unperturbed embryo, (D) an embryo electroporated with the Foxc>Noggin
construct, (E) a control DMSO-treated embryo, and (F) an embryo treated with 50 μM
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dorsomorphin at the middle tailbud stage. We examined 45 embryos electroporated with
Foxc>Noggin, and 101 embryos treated with dorsomorphin. Among them, 93% and 75% of
embryos exhibited the phenotypes represented in (D) and (F), respectively. (G, H) Double
fluorescence in situ hybridization for Foxg (green) and Zf220 (magenta) in (G) a control
embryo, (H) an embryo treated with 50 μM dorsomorphin. In (H), the experimental embryo
lost Zf220 in the central region, and ectopically expressed Foxg. The expression pattern of
Foxg and Zf220 in the most anterior row of normal embryos are depicted on the right of (G).
These most-anterior-row cells are daughters of a10.72 and a10.80 as illustrated. Note that
Zf220 is also expressed in the second row (Liu and Satou, 2019), which are not depicted.
Photographs from C to H are anterior views, and the dorsal side of the trunk is down. (I)
Percentages of embryos that normally expressed Zf220 (black), lost Zf220 expression in the
central cells (gray), and lost it in both of the central and flanking cells (white) in the anterior
row of unperturbed control embryos and embryos treated with dorsomorphin. We examined
Zf220 expression by non-fluorescence in situ hybridization in addition to double fluorescence
in situ hybridization shown in (G) and (H). The scale bars in (A), (C), and (G) represent 50
μm.
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