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Background: Some marine invertebrate organisms are considered not to develop tumors due to unknown mechanisms. To gain an initial insight into how tumor-related genes may be expressed and function during marine invertebrate development, we here leverage sea urchin embryos as a model system and characterize the expressions of Myc and p53/p63/p73 which are reported to function synergistically in mammalian models as an oncogene and tumor suppressor, respectively., Results: During sea urchin embryogenesis, a combo gene of p53/p63/p73 is found to be maternally loaded and decrease after fertilization both in transcript and protein, while Myc transcript and protein are zygotically expressed. p53/p63/p73 and Myc proteins are observed in the cytoplasm and nucleus of every blastomere, respectively, throughout embryogenesis. Both p53/p63/p73 and Myc overexpression results in compromised development with increased DNA damage after the blastula stage. p53/p63/p73 increases the expression of parp1, a DNA repair/cell death marker gene, and suppresses endomesoderm gene expressions. In contrast, Myc does not alter the expression of specification genes or oncogenes yet induces disorganized morphology., Conclusions: p53/p63/p73 appears to be important for controlling cell differentiation, while Myc induces disorganized morphology yet not through conventional oncogene regulations or apoptotic pathways during embryogenesis of the sea urchin., (© 2023 American Association for Anatomy.)

Localized mRNA translation is a biological process that allows mRNA to be translated on-site, which is proposed to provide fine control in protein regulation, both spatially and temporally within a cell. We recently reported that Vasa, an RNA-helicase, is a promising factor that appears to regulate this process on the spindle during the embryonic development of the sea urchin, yet the detailed roles and functional mechanisms of Vasa in this process are still largely unknown. In this review article, to elucidate these remaining questions, we first summarize the prior knowledge and our recent findings in the area of Vasa research and further discuss how Vasa may function in localized mRNA translation, contributing to efficient protein regulation during rapid embryogenesis and cancer cell regulation., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)