Discovery of genes expressed in Hydra embryogenesis

Hydra's remarkable capacity to regenerate, to proliferate asexually by budding, and to form a pattern de novo from aggregates allows studying complex cellular and molecular processes typical for embryonic development. The underlying assumption is that patterning in adult hydra tissue relies on factors and genes which are active also during early embryogenesis. Previously, we reported that in Hydra the timing of expression of conserved regulatory genes, known to be involved in adult patterning, differs greatly in adults and embryos (Fröbius, A.C., Genikhovich, G., Kürn, U., Anton-Erxleben, F. and Bosch, T.C.G., 2003. Expression of developmental genes during early embryogenesis of Hydra. Dev. Genes Evol. 213, 445–455). Here, we describe an unbiased screening strategy to identify genes that are relevant to Hydra vulgaris embryogenesis. The approach yielded two sets of differentially expressed genes: one set was expressed exclusively or nearly exclusively in the embryos, while the second set was upregulated in embryos in comparison to adult polyps. Many of the genes identified in hydra embryos had no matches in the database. Among the conserved genes upregulated in embryos is the Hydra orthologue of Embryonic Ectoderm Development (HyEED). The expression pattern of HyEED in developing embryos suggests that interstitial stem cells in Hydra originate in the endoderm. Importantly, the observations uncover previously unknown differences in genes expressed by embryos and polyps and indicate that not only the timing of expression of developmental genes but also the genetic context is different in Hydra embryos compared to adults.