title: Morphological and molecular analysis of the Nematostella vectensis cnidom.
abstract: The starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is an emerging model organism for developmental and evolutionary biology. Due to the availability of genome data and its amenability to genetic manipulation Nematostella serves as a source for comparative molecular and phylogenetic studies. Despite this fact, the characterization of the nematocyst inventory and of nematocyst-specific genes is still fragmentary and sometimes misleading in this cnidarian species. Here, we present a thorough qualitative and quantitative analysis of nematocysts in Nematostella vectensis. In addition, we have cloned major nematocyst components, Nematostella minicollagens 1, 3 and 4, and show their expression patterns by in situ hybridization and immunocytochemistry using specific antibodies. Our data provides tools and insights for further studies on nematocyst morphogenesis in Nematostella and comparative evolution in cnidarians.
authors.affiliation: Department for Molecular Evolution and Genomics, Centre for Organismal Studies, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zenkert
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Mark-Oliver
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Diesner
authors.forename: Suat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Özbek
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003063:Cnidaria / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058894:Nematocyst / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen