Collagenous connective tissues are omnipresent in almost all multicellular organisms, including humans. These tissues maintain the body’s structural support, carry regulatory functions, and manage applied mechanical forces.
While the mechanical properties of collagenous tissues either remain stable or undergo gradual changes in most animals, Echonoderms have great control over their tissues’ flexibility. Their connective tissues are capable of rapid stiffening or softening. These tissues are called Mutable Collagenous Tissues (MCT).
MCT appears to be unique to echinoderms, allowing them to perform additional functions in addition to the collagenous tissue’s standard roles. Since MCT is the mechanism behind the energy-saving acquisition in echinoderms and contributed to the phylum’s evolutionary success, researchers think a better understanding of these genes could inspire smart biomaterials.
Since the MCT is associated with neurosecretory cells called juxtaligamental cells (JLCs), researchers aim to identify genes expressed differently in JLCs.
Researchers at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte utilized advanced transmission electron microscopy, RNA sequencing, and other bioinformatics methods to identify 16 potential MCT modulator genes. This finding could be a breakthrough in our understanding of how echinoderms echinoderms quickly and drastically transform their collagenous tissues.
Jacob Machado says, “We’re uncovering the precise instructions that DNA sends to the cell — what it’s saying, when it’s saying it, and in what quantities. Think of DNA as the captain of a ship, issuing commands to navigate and operate smoothly.“
“The RNA is the crew, diligently receiving those orders and carrying them out to ensure the ship’s mission is accomplished. We are looking into what the crew is doing and learning from their hard work,” Jacob continued.
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Researchers assert pinpointing relevant molecular processes in echinoderms could open new avenues for regenerative therapies. Echinoderms like sea cucumbers or brittle stars can remarkably adapt their tissues to multiple stressors and change rapidly based on stimuli.
One of their distinctive abilities is detaching a portion of the body to escape from predators. A few species of brittle stars offer better testing of isolating MCT modulator genes. These findings could help develop smart collagen-based biomaterials to treat human health conditions like fast wound healing.
Since the 16 genes are suspected, researchers are keen to use techniques like in situ hybridization (ISH) and RNA interference (RNAi) to turn them off. Jacob and colleagues want to study “what happens to the echinoderms once some of those genes are turned off.“
This genome detection and elimination method will allow the experimenters to determine which genes are involved explicitly in mutable collagenous tissues.
The lead authors stress building a smart, dynamic new biomaterial by conferring functionality to the identified candidate genes. Intriguingly, Jacob Machado and his colleagues at UNC Charlotte already have a pending patent on a collagen-based biomaterial.
“Collagen matrix that can change its pliability to become as soft or rigid as we want,” says Jacob.
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Journal Reference
- Nouri, R., Mashanov, V., Harris, A. et al. Unveiling putative modulators of mutable collagenous tissue in the brittle star Ophiomastix wendtii: an RNA-Seq analysis. BMC Genomics 25, 1013 (2024). DOI: 10.1186/s12864-024-10926-7
