The Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, a novel model for developmental studies of mollusks

Miglioli, A.; Tredez, M.; Boosten, M.; Sant, C.; Carvalho, J. E.; Dru, P.; Canesi, L.; Schubert, M.; Dumollard, R.

doi:10.1101/2023.07.27.550798

Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.07.27.550798

The Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, a novel model for developmental studies of mollusks

Miglioli, A.·Tredez, M.·Boosten, M.·Sant, C.·Carvalho, J. E.·Dru, P.·Canesi, L.·Schubert, M.·Dumollard, R.

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

A model organism in developmental biology is defined by its experimental amenability as well as by resources created for the model system by the scientific community. For the most powerful models, the combination of both has already yielded a thorough understanding of development. However, the number of developmental model systems is still very limited, and their phylogenetic distribution is heavily biased. Members of one of the largest animal phyla, the mollusks, for example, have long been neglected as developmental model organisms. To remedy this shortcoming, we produced a detailed developmental transcriptome for the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, a bivalve mollusk, and expanded the list of experimental protocols available for this species. Our high-quality transcriptome allowed us to identify transcriptomic signatures of developmental transitions and to perform a first comparison with the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas that can be used in future multi-species analyses. To allow co-labelling studies, we optimized protocols for immunohistochemistry and hybridization chain reaction and combined both techniques to create high-resolution co-expression maps of developmental genes. The resources and protocols we describe here thus represent an enormous boost for the establishment of the Mediterranean mussel as a laboratory model in developmental biology. Summary statementResources and techniques are described for the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, which, together, establish a novel model system for studying mollusk development and animal evolution.

Source connections

Published article ↗

Explore related subjects

developmental biology Preprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Miglioli, A., Tredez, M., Boosten, M., Sant, C., Carvalho, J. E., Dru, P., Canesi, L., Schubert, M., Dumollard, R.. 2023-07-28. The Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, a novel model for developmental studies of mollusks. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.27.550798

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

Proteome-wide quantification of protein turnover in frog and fly embryos reveals divergent strategies of maternal inheritance

Every embryo inherits a maternal proteome that it must remodel with zygotic proteins to build its many cell types. The fate of the maternal proteome remains contested because indirect measurements cannot resolve it. Here, we combine 18O-water labeling with multiplexed proteomics to quantify protein turnover proteome-wide in frog and fly embryos. Through hatching, the frog preserves the bulk of its maternal proteome, confining rapid degradation to a small regulatory module. The fly cannot meet its synthesis demand from yolk alone and instead degrades nearly all maternal proteins, including housekeeping proteins long assumed stable, recycling them into new protein. Yet the turnover hierarchy is conserved, with disordered and regulatory proteins degrading fastest, while the fly rescales the whole proteome ~eightfold faster. These results recast the developmental proteome as both informational inheritance and metabolic reserve, establish 18O-water labeling as a turnover method for non-feeding organisms, and provide a resource of embryonic half-lives.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2026

The MAPK phosphatase VHP-1 buffers pharynx-to-body proportions against tissue-specific growth imbalance in C. elegans

Maintaining appropriate organ size ratios in the face of growth fluctuations is critical for the development of a reproducible body plan. Yet the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated how pharynx-to-body proportions are maintained in Caenorhabditis elegans, combining tissue-specific perturbations, genetic screening, and longitudinal live imaging. A genome-wide RNAi screen revealed that knock-down of the dual-specificity MAPK phosphatase VHP-1 turns animals hypersensitive to inter-tissue growth imbalance caused by pharyngeal or epidermal depletion of the mTORC1 activator RAGA-1 or the ribosomal protein RPL-22. In contrast, vhp-1 mutants tolerated global raga-1 loss, indicating a specific requirement for vhp-1 under tissue growth imbalance. Knock-down of the p38 pathway suppressed the imbalance-specific defects of vhp-1 mutants. In contrast, JNK knock-down effectively rescued the pleiotropic phenotypes of vhp-1 mutants but only weakly reduced their sensitivity to RAGA-1 imbalance, indicating that these two stress-MAPK pathways make distinct contributions to the response to growth imbalance. Finally, whole-animal VHP-1 levels increased upon epidermal RAGA-1 depletion, and epidermal VHP-1 depletion did not reproduce the sensitivity caused by global vhp-1 loss, consistent with a contribution from VHP-1 outside the growth-perturbed epidermis in buffering against local growth imbalance.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2026

Network topology reveals distinct forms of developmental leverage in the Drosophila wing

Developmental gene regulatory networks reliably transform positional information into complex multicellular form, yet the organizational principles linking network architecture to developmental mechanism remain poorly understood. Here, we analyzed the Drosophila melanogaster wing developmental network to determine whether network topology reflects the distribution of developmental leverage during organogenesis. Integration of curated wing-development genes with high-confidence STRING interactions revealed five Hierarchical Layers of Developmental Control (HLDCs) associated with distinct topological and developmental roles. Organizer Centers, Signaling Scaffolds, and Pattern Implementers formed a forward-specification axis in which connectivity progressively contracted as positional information was transformed into increasingly localized developmental programs. Interface Coordinators departed from this hierarchy through disproportionate brokerage, whereas Local Modulators retained connectivity despite localized developmental scope. We propose that these complementary signatures reflect two regulatory architectures: 1) hierarchical information propagation that generates developmental identity and 2) distributed homeostatic regulation that coordinates and refines developmental outputs. Within Character Identity Modules (ChiMOs), this architecture links conserved patterning systems, Hox-defined contexts, and organ-specific kernels to reproducible morphology, providing a mechanistic hypothesis for developmental canalization and experimentally testable predictions.

developmental biology↗