Laura N Vandenberg
Laura N. Vandenberg worked with Michael Levin on Xenopus embryos. Vandenberg used low frequency vibration as a timed way to disturb left-right patterning12, and later measured malformations it caused in two aquatic species7. Vandenberg also co-authored work on a left-right voltage bias in the developing eye field34.
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Vibration and left-right asymmetry
The 2011 paper started from a problem of method. Genetic changes and injected mRNA act across wide stretches of development, and drugs have uncertain timing2. Vibration offered a treatment that could be started and stopped at chosen stages. Vibration begun at the 1 cell, 2 cell, 4 cell or stage 6 and continued through neurulation disrupted the localization of Xnr-1 (Nodal)1. Mislocalization appeared in 49 to 59 percent of vibrated embryos. Vibration begun at stage 8 did not significantly change Xnr-1 or organ situs. The authors concluded that the disrupted orientation step feeds into the conserved transcriptional cascade1.
Malformations in two species
The 2012 paper extended the vibration work to Xenopus and zebrafish. The methods show what was measured. Bent tails were analysed in ImageJ, using the angle of the bend and the distances on either side of it, which together gave total tail length7. Only tails with a single bend were analysed. Experiments were run in duplicate or triplicate and pooled. Counts of affected and unaffected embryos were compared by chi-squared test, with significance set at p<0.01.
Eye asymmetry and later use
In the 2012 paper with Pai, Blackiston and Levin, the eye field showed a rightward voltage bias in normal embryos. Treatment with pH randomized that bias, which the authors read as downstream of early ion flow4. Injecting glycine receptor mRNA produced a 2.5-fold bias toward right eye defects. A dominant-negative Pax6 control showed no left-right bias3. These tadpoles had misplaced facial organs yet tended to become largely normal frogs56.
Vibrations starting at 1 cell, 2 cell, 4 cell or st. 6 and continuing through neurulation all significantly disrupted Xnr-1 localization (Figure 4).
Vandenberg LN, Pennarola BW, Levin M, 2011 · Low frequency vibrations disrupt left-right patterning in the Xenopus embryo · open at passage 12However, molecular-genetic alterations do not offer temporal control (especially for maternal mRNA or protein targets, where inducible promoters cannot be used).
Vandenberg LN, Pennarola BW, Levin M, 2011 · Low frequency vibrations disrupt left-right patterning in the Xenopus embryo · open at passage 4there was a significant bias (2.5-fold) towards defects in the patterning of the right eye (Figure 2(d); P = 0.0007, Chi-squared test).
Pai VP, Vandenberg LN, Blackiston D, Levin M, 2012 · Neurally Derived Tissues in Xenopus laevis Embryos Exhibit a Consistent… · open at passage 14Analysis of the polarization signal in the siblings of treated embryos at stage 18 showed that the rightward bias seen in the normal embryos (n = 191)
Pai VP, Vandenberg LN, Blackiston D, Levin M, 2012 · Neurally Derived Tissues in Xenopus laevis Embryos Exhibit a Consistent… · open at passage 12we made tadpoles in which these organs were in the wrong positions—so-called Picasso Tadpoles (Vandenberg et al., 2012). Amazingly, they tend to turn into largely normal frogs
Levin M, 2022 · Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere: An Experimentally-Grounded Framework… · open at passage 60the tadpole of Xenopus laevis can reach the correct frog face region of morphospace not only from its default starting position (a normal tadpole configuration), but also from a wide range of scrambled configurations (Vandenberg et al. 2012)
Levin M, 2023 · Bioelectric networks: the cognitive glue enabling evolutionary scaling from… · open at passage 46Three measurements were taken from bent tails: the angle of the bend, the distance from the posterior end of the gut coil to the bend in the tail, and the distance from the bend to the tip of the tail.
Vandenberg LN, Stevenson C, Levin M, 2012 · Low frequency vibrations induce malformations in two aquatic species in a… · open at passage 11
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