title: Expression pattern of vascular endothelial growth factor 2 during sea urchin development.
abstract: The VEGF family in the sea urchin is comprised of three members designated Vegf1 through Vegf3. In this study, we found a high level of similarity between the PDGF/VEGF domain of the predicted gene Sp-Vegf2 in the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and the same domain of a gene that we found in a closely related sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus intermedius. The sequence of the Si-Vegf2 cDNA was determined, and the expression of the Si-Vegf2 mRNA throughout early sea urchin development was studied by RT-PCR and in situ hybridization. Also we analyzed phylogenetic relationships of Si-Vegf2 and other members of the PDGF and VEGF families. We have found that the Si-Vegf2 present during the time span from the egg to the 4-arm pluteus stage. This mRNA is uniformly distributed in eggs, cleaving embryos and early blastulae. At the gastrula stage, the Si-Vegf2 transcripts are localized in the ventrolateral clusters of primary mesenchyme cells, and later, at the prism stage, they are detected in the forming apex. At the early pluteus stage, Si-Vegf2 mRNAs are found in two groups of mesenchyme cells in the scheitel region on the apical pole. We have determined that Si-Vegf2 is a mesenchyme-expressed factor but its developmental function is unknown.
authors.affiliation: A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Palchevsky Str. 17, 690059 Vladivostok, Russia; Far Eastern Federal University, Sukhanova Str. 8, 690950 Vladivostok, Russia. Electronic address: yulia.kipryushina@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yulia O
authors.initials: YO
authors.lastname: Kipryushina
authors.forename: Konstantin V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Yakovlev
authors.forename: Milana A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kulakova
authors.forename: Nelly A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Odintsova
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015870:Gene Expression; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009928:Organ Specificity; D010802:Phylogeny; D047269:Strongylocentrotus / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D042442:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D042442:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
keywords: Development; Sea urchin; Si-Vegf2; VEGF