Identification and expression of amphioxus AmphiSmad1/5/8 and AmphiSmad4

Smad family proteins are identified as intracellular signal mediators of the TGF-β superfamily. In this study, we identified two novel members of the Smad family, termed as AmphiSmad1/5/8 and AmphiSmad4, from Chinese amphioxus. Both AmphiSmad1/5/8 and AmphiSmad4 showed a typical domain structure of Smad proteins consisting of conserved MH1 and MH2 domains. Phylogenetic analysis placed AmphiSmad1/5/8 in the Smad1, 5 and 8 subgroup of the R-Smad subfamily, and AmphiSmad4 in the Co-Smad subfamily. The spatial and temporal gene expression patterns of AmphiSmad1/5/8 and AmphiSmad4 showed that they may be involved in the embryonic development of notochord, myotome and alimentary canal, and may help to establish the specification of dorsal-ventral axis of amphioxus. Moreover, AmphiSmad1/5/8 and AmphiSmad4 showed extensive distribution in all adult tissues examined, suggesting that these two genes may play important roles in the morphogenesis of a variety of tissues especially notochord and gonad.