Evolution of Intercellular Signaling in Development (EvoInSiDe)

Team history

The team Evolution of Intercellular Signaling in Development (EvoInSiDe) was created in 2012, upon the arrival of Michael Schubert at the Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement de Villefranche-sur-Mer (LBDV) and the fusion of his arriving group with that of Jenifer Croce already in place at the institute. The team is jointly animated by both principal investigators and addresses questions about the developmental functions and evolutionary diversification of two crucial intercellular signaling cascades (Wnt and retinoic acid signaling), using alternative animal model systems located at key phylogenetic positions in the animal tree of life, such as sea urchins, amphioxus, and lampreys.

Research themes

The members of the EvoInSiDe team are studying a highly complex question: how to create an entire, multicellular organism from a single cell? Although it does not come as a surprise that this process relies on very well coordinated intercellular communication mechanisms, the discovery that the number of intercellular signals involved is relatively small and that they are being reused repeatedly during development for the patterning and formation of various tissues is rather astonishing. Elaboration of the interactions between these signaling pathways, which include Wnt, hedgehog (Hh), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ), bone morphogenic protein (BMP), retinoic acid (RA), and Delta/Notch, has further been proposed as one of the key events marking the evolutionary diversification of multicellular animals.

In the EvoInSiDe team, we investigate and compare how intercellular signaling cascades regulate critical developmental processes in different animals to establish their biological functions and to determine conserved and divergent aspects of the molecular mechanisms underlying their activities.

Our goals are (1) to identify novel aspects of the activation, regulation, and downstream targets of these signaling systems, (2) to characterize the biological processes they are required for during development, (3) to understand how these pathways have evolved in metazoans, and (4) to assess their contribution to the diversification of animal body plans, focusing in particular on the deuterostome branch of the animal tree of life. To reach these goals, we are studying the Wnt and retinoic acid signaling pathways, using mainly three alternative animal model systems: sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus), amphioxus (Branchiostoma lanceolatum), and lampreys (Lampetra fluviatilis).