ArticlePLoS biology2013
The bilaterian head patterning gene six3/6 controls aboral domain development in a cnidarian.
Article in PLoS biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 176 citations in OpenAlex.
- The anti-neural role of BMP signaling is a consequence of its ancestral function in dorsoventral patterning.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- The 3D architecture of the ctenophore aboral organ and the evolution of complex integrative centers in animals.Science advances · 2026Article
- NvashA function reveals temporal differences in neural subtype generation in cnidarians.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- An abundant membrane protein in the NCAM superfamily is required for epithelial organization in sea anemone embryos.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Evolutionary dynamics of FoxQ2 transcription factors across metazoans reveals three ancient paralogs.Communications biology · 2025Article
- An Integrated Canonical and Non-Canonical Wnt Signaling Network Controls Early Anterior-Posterior Axis Formation in Sea Urchin Embryos.Journal of developmental biology · 2025Review
- Shedding Light on Patterns of Unconventional Expression of Opsin Genes in Hydra vulgaris.Integrative and comparative biology · 2025Article
- Depletion of a neural cell adhesion molecule disrupts both epithelial and germ layer identity in sea anemone embryos.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Aboral cell types ofScience advances · 2025Article
- The property of larval cells of the scleractinian coral, Acropora tenuis, deduced from in vitro cultured cells.Development, growth & differentiation · 2025Article
- An ancient apical patterning system sets the position of the forebrain in chordates.Science advances · 2025Article
- Candidate stem cell isolation and transplantation in Hexacorallia.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Combinatorial Wnt signaling landscape during brachiopod anteroposterior patterning.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Updated single cell reference atlas for the starlet anemone Nematostella vectensis.Frontiers in zoology · 2024Article
- Dynamics of Chromatin Opening across Larval Development in the Urochordate AscidianInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Gene Regulatory Network that Shaped the Evolution of Larval Apical Organ in Cnidaria.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Lhx3/4 initiates a cardiopharyngeal-specific transcriptional program in response to widespread FGF signaling.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization as a Tool for Studying the Specification and Differentiation of Cell Types in Nematostella vectensis.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Topological structures and syntenic conservation in sea anemone genomes.Nature communications · 2023Article
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The origin of the bilaterian head is a fundamental question for the evolution of animal body plans. The head of bilaterians develops at the anterior end of their primary body axis and is the site where the brain is located. Cnidarians, the sister group to bilaterians, lack brain-like structures and it is not clear whether the oral, the aboral, or none of the ends of the cnidarian primary body axis corresponds to the anterior domain of bilaterians. In order to understand the evolutionary origin of head development, we analysed the function of conserved genetic regulators of bilaterian anterior development in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. We show that orthologs of the bilaterian anterior developmental genes six3/6, foxQ2, and irx have dynamic expression patterns in the aboral region of Nematostella. Functional analyses reveal that NvSix3/6 acts upstream of NvFoxQ2a as a key regulator of the development of a broad aboral territory in Nematostella. NvSix3/6 initiates an autoregulatory feedback loop involving positive and negative regulators of FGF signalling, which subsequently results in the downregulation of NvSix3/6 and NvFoxQ2a in a small domain at the aboral pole, from which the apical organ develops. We show that signalling by NvFGFa1 is specifically required for the development of the apical organ, whereas NvSix3/6 has an earlier and broader function in the specification of the aboral territory. Our functional and gene expression data suggest that the head-forming region of bilaterians is derived from the aboral domain of the cnidarian-bilaterian ancestor.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.