An optimized Tet-On system for conditional control of gene expression in sea urchins

Sea urchins and other echinoderms are important experimental models for studying developmental processes. The lack of approaches for conditional gene perturbation, however, has made it challenging to investigate the late developmental functions of genes that have essential roles during early embryogenesis and genes that have diverse functions in multiple tissues. The doxycycline-controlled Tet-On system is a widely used molecular tool for temporally and spatially regulated transgene expression. Here, we optimized the Tet-On system to conditionally induce gene expression in sea urchin embryos. Using this approach, we explored the roles the MAPK signaling plays in skeletogenesis by expressing genes that perturb the pathway specifically in primary mesenchyme cells (PMCs) during later stages of development. We demonstrated the wide utility of the Tet-On system by applying it to a second sea urchin species and in cell types other than the PMCs. Our work provides a robust and flexible platform for the spatio-temporal regulation of gene expression in sea urchins, which will considerably enhance the utility of this prominent model system.