Ablation of a Single Cell From Eight-cell Embryos of the Amphipod Crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis

Summary

The amphipod Parhyale hawaiensis is a promising model organism for studies of crustacean embryology and comparative arthropod development and evolution. This protocol describes a method for manual removal of single blastomeres from early cleavage stage embryos of Parhyale.

Abstract

The amphipod Parhyale hawaiensis is a small crustacean found in intertidal marine habitats worldwide. Over the past decade, Parhyale has emerged as a promising model organism for laboratory studies of development, providing a useful outgroup comparison to the well studied arthropod model organism Drosophila melanogaster. In contrast to the syncytial cleavages of Drosophila, the early cleavages of Parhyale are holoblastic. Fate mapping using tracer dyes injected into early blastomeres have shown that all three germ layers and the germ line are established by the eight-cell stage. At this stage, three blastomeres are fated to give rise to the ectoderm, three are fated to give rise to the mesoderm, and the remaining two blastomeres are the precursors of the endoderm and germ line respectively. However, blastomere ablation experiments have shown that Parhyale embryos also possess significant regulatory capabilities, such that the fates of blastomeres ablated at the eight-cell stage can be taken over by the descendants of some of the remaining blastomeres. Blastomere ablation has previously been described by one of two methods: injection and subsequent activation of phototoxic dyes or manual ablation. However, photoablation kills blastomeres but does not remove the dead cell body from the embryo. Complete physical removal of specific blastomeres may therefore be a preferred method of ablation for some applications. Here we present a protocol for manual removal of single blastomeres from the eight-cell stage of Parhyale embryos, illustrating the instruments and manual procedures necessary for complete removal of the cell body while keeping the remaining blastomeres alive and intact. This protocol can be applied to any Parhyale cell at the eight-cell stage, or to blastomeres of other early cleavage stages. In addition, in principle this protocol could be applicable to early cleavage stage embryos of other holoblastically cleaving marine invertebrates.

Introduction

The amphipod crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis has emerged over the last decade as a promising model organism with great potential for use in evolutionary developmental biology research¹. Among the arthropods, most model systems are insects, and the most extensively studied of these is the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. D. melanogaster is a member of the insect order Diptera, and as such displays many embryological features that are derived with respect to those of basally branching insects². Moreover, insects are nested within the subphylum Pancrustacea³, meaning that insects have their closest relatives wi....

Protocol

Comments that may be helpful in executing certain steps are indicated in italics.

1. Day 1: Preparation of Materials

1. Prepare the following materials (see Table of Materials and Equipment):
   • 15 cm and 22 cm Pasteur pipettes
   • Diamond scribe
   • filtered artificial seawater (salinity between 0.0018-0.0020) containing 1 mg/ml Amphotericin B (1:100 of a 100 mg/ml stock solution), 100 units/ml penicillin and 100 mg/ml streptomycin (1:50 of a stock solution containing 5,000 units/ml of penicillin and 5,000 mg/ml of streptomycin)
   • filtered artificial sea water (salinity between 0.0018-0.0020) without additives<....

Results

Following successful ablation of single third cleavage P. hawaiensis micromeres as described in this protocol, the remaining micromeres gradually shift their positions slightly so as to partially occupy the space formerly occupied by the ablated blastomere. For example, when g is removed, the neighboring blastomeres mr and ml shift slightly and come to share the lateral cell borders that were formerly in direct contact with g (compare Fi.......

Discussion

We describe a protocol for manual ablation and complete physical removal of single blastomeres from early cleavage stages of the amphipod P. hawaiensis. We demonstrate use of this protocol by removing the single germ line precursor cell g from an eight-cell stage embryo, and show that ablation has been successful by confirming absence of g’s daughter cells in later embryogenesis. This protocol can be used to remove any of the micromeres from the embryo at early cleavage st.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
15 cm Pasteur pipette	Wheaton	53499-630 VWR	For transferring intact and blastomere-ablated embryos from dish to dish.
22 cm Pasteur pipette	Wheaton	53499-632 VWR	For making mouth pipette tips.
3 cm Petri dishes	Thermo Scientific	25382-334 VWR	Use some unaltered to collect and store embryos; coat some with a layer of Sylgard (see below) to create a working surface for blastomere ablations.
48-well Plates	Greiner Bio-One	82051-004 VWR	For culturing embryos following ablation.
Bottle top filters 0.2 µm	Nalge Nunc International	28199-296 VWR	For creating FASW (See below).
Bunsen burner	VWR	89038-530 VWR	For creating tungsten wire tool and fine tip of mouth pipette.
Diamond scribe	Musco Sports Lighting	52865-005 VWR	For creating wide-mouthed Pasteur pipettes for collecting couples.
Forceps	Fine Science Tools	11050-10 Fine Science Tools	For holding anaesthetized females during removal of embryos from brood pouch. These do not have to be fine-tipped Dumont forceps - the tips can be at least as blunt as those of the forceps for which the catalogue number is listed here.
Fungizone-Amphotericin B	Sigma	A2942 Sigma Aldrich	Add to FASW to a final concentration of 1 mg/ml, and use this solution to culture blastomere-ablated embryos.
Glass capillaries 4 in long, 1/0.58 OD/ID (mm)	World Precision Instruments	1B100-4 World Precision Instruments	For making needles for puncturing the blastomere to be ablated.
Glass watchglass 300 mm diameter	Electron Microscopy Sciences	70543-30 Electron Microscopy Sciences	For use in removing embryos from the brood pouch of anesthetized females.
Instant Ocean Artificial Sea Water (ASW)	Instant Ocean	IS160 Aquatic EcoSystems	Make ASW by dissolving salt in deionized water to a salinity of 1.022-1.024.
Instant Ocean Filtered Artificial Sea Water (FASW)	Instant Ocean	IS160 Aquatic EcoSystems	Use 0.2 µm filters to sterilize ASW. Make up in small amounts (< 250 ml) as needed.
Kimwipes	Kimberly-Clark	21905-026 VWR	For safely breaking off the fine end of Pasteur pipettes modified for collecting couples.
Mouth pipette adaptor	Drummond Labware	A5177-5EA Sigma Aldrich	Insert the fine pulled Pasteur pipette tip into this end, to be used for removing extruded cell contents during the ablation procedure.
Mouth pipette tubing	Aldrich	Z280356 Sigma Aldrich	Cut this to be long enough to comfortably hang around your neck during the ablation procedure.
Needle Puller	Sutter Instrument Company	P97 Sutter Instrument Company	For making needles from glass capillaries for puncturing the blastomere to be ablated.
Penicillin-Streptomycin Solution	Mediatech	45000-650 VWR	Add to FASW to a final concentration of 100 units/ml penicillin and 100 mg/ml streptomycin, and use this solution to culture blastomere-ablated embryos.
Rubber bulb	Electron Microscopy Sciences	100488-418 VWR	For using Pasteur pipettes to transfer embryos from dish to dish.
Sylgard 184	K. R. Anderson, Inc.	NC9659604 Fisher Scientific	Make up according to manufacturer's instructions. Pour a layer 2-5 mm thick into a 3cm petri dish to create a working surface for blastomere ablations.
Tungsten wire 0.004 inches diameter	A-M Systems	719000 A-M Systems	Use this to make a tool for removing embryos from the brood pouch of anaesthetized females.