Genome-wide identification of genes activated by VEGF signaling in the sea urchin embryo. Lividus_VEGF_signaling

The formation of embryonic calcitic spicules in the sea urchin is an excellent model system to study biomineralization. The gene regulatory network (GRN) that underlies this highly tractable instance of embryonic skeleton formation is one of the most complete developmental GRN presently available. Within this framework, recent studies have shown that the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) provides vital cues for the directed cell migration, cell fusion and biomineralization through the activation of VEGF receptor (VEGFR) that is exclusively expressed in the skeletogenic mesoderm (SM) cells. Surprisingly, while the different components of the VEGF pathway have been extensively studied, very little is known about the downstream gene regulatory network activated by VEGF signaling. Aiming at filling this critical gap in understanding skeletogenesis, we used RNA-seq to identify novel gene targets that are activated by the VEGF pathway prior and during skeletal biomineralization.