{"doi":"10.1101/2022.08.12.503758","title":"Elements of divergence in germline determination in closely related species","abstract":"Abstract Evolutionary transitions enable the wide diversity in life histories of plants and animals. This is particularly germane in the development of the germ line in which fitness is a direct readout of evolutionary change. Here, we focused on the gem line of two distinct sea urchin species who shared a common ancestor 50 million years ago. Even though they both rely on inherited mechanisms to specify their germ line, the integration of stage-matched single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) datasets from these two sea urchins revealed a variety of differences in gene expression, including a broader expression of the germ line factor Nanos2 in Lytechinus variegatus ( Lv ) compared to Strongylocentrotus purpuratus ( Sp ). In Sp, Nanos2 mRNA expression is highly restricted to the primordial germ cells (PGCs) by a lability element in its 3’UTR. This element is lacking in the mRNA of Lv Nanos2 , explaining how this mRNA more broadly accumulates in the Lv embryos. We discovered that the Lv Nanos2 3’UTR instead leads to a germline specific translation of the protein. The results emphasize that regulatory mechanisms resulting in germline diversity rely less on transcriptional regulation and more on post-transcriptional and post-translational restrictions of key gene products, such as Nanos2. Highlights - The first integration of scRNA-seq datasets comparing two echinoderm species. - We find Nanos2 positive cells in the embryonic soma of Lytechinus variegatus , an unusual occurrence, but not in Strongylocentrous purpuratus . - We discovered that this somatic Nanos2 mRNA is lacking an important regulatory element (GNARLE) in its 3’UTR - Instead, in Lv , the 3’UTR of Nanos2 leads to its specific translation in the germ cells.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2022,"id":310647,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9424,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":325543,"name":"Nathalie Oulhen","orcid":"0000-0003-1046-360X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":325544,"name":"Stephany Foster","orcid":"0000-0002-9404-1692","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":320149,"name":"Gary M. Wessel","orcid":"0000-0002-1210-9279","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":419989,"name":"Shumpei Morita","orcid":"0000-0002-7514-6026","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":54,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:33:24.451129Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}