The habenulae are bilateral nuclei located in the dorsal diencephalon that are conserved across vertebrates. Here we describe the main afferents to the habenulae in larval and adult zebrafish. We observe afferents from the subpallium, nucleus rostrolateralis, posterior tuberculum, posterior hypothalamic lobe, median raphe; we also see asymmetric afferents from olfactory bulb to the right habenula, and from the parapineal to the left habenula. In addition, we find afferents from a ventrolateral telencephalic nucleus that neurochemical and hodological data identify as the ventral entopeduncular nucleus (vENT), confirming and extending observations of Amo et al. (2014). Fate map and marker studies suggest that vENT originates from the diencephalic prethalamic eminence and extends into the lateral telencephalon from 48 to 120 hour post-fertilization (hpf). No afferents to the habenula were observed from the dorsal entopeduncular nucleus (dENT). Consequently, we confirm that the vENT (and not the dENT) should be considered as the entopeduncular nucleus “proper” in zebrafish. Furthermore, comparison with data in other vertebrates suggests that the vENT is a conserved basal ganglia nucleus, being homologous to the entopeduncular nucleus of mammals (internal segment of the globus pallidus of primates) by both embryonic origin and projections, as previously suggested by Amo et al. (2014).

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The myelin sheath insulates axons in the vertebrate nervous system, allowing rapid propagation of action potentials via saltatory conduction. Specialized glial cells, termed Schwann cells in the PNS and oligodendrocytes in the CNS, wrap axons to form myelin, a compacted, multilayered sheath comprising specific proteins and lipids. Disruption of myelinated axons causes human diseases, including multiple sclerosis and Charcot-Marie-Tooth peripheral neuropathies. Despite the progress in identifying human disease genes and other mutations disrupting glial development and myelination, many important unanswered questions remain about the mechanisms that coordinate the development of myelinated axons. To address these questions, we began a genetic dissection of myelination in zebrafish. Here we report a genetic screen that identified 13 mutations, which define 10 genes, disrupting the development of myelinated axons. We present the initial characterization of seven of these mutations, defining six different genes, along with additional characterization of mutations that we have described previously. The different mutations affect the PNS, the CNS, or both, and phenotypic analyses indicate that the genes affect a wide range of steps in glial development, from fate specification through terminal differentiation. The analysis of these mutations will advance our understanding of myelination, and the mutants will serve as models of human diseases of myelin.

The lymphatic system controls fluid homeostasis and the clearance of macromolecules from interstitial compartments. In mammals brain lymphatics were only recently discovered, with significant implications for physiology and disease. We examined zebrafish for the presence of brain lymphatics and found loosely connected endothelial cells with lymphatic molecular signature covering parts of the brain without forming endothelial tubular structures. These brain lymphatic endothelial cells (BLECs) derive from venous endothelium, are distinct from macrophages, and are sensitive to loss of Vegfc. BLECs endocytose macromolecules in a selective manner, which can be blocked by injection of mannose receptor ligands. This first report on brain lymphatic endothelial cells in a vertebrate embryo identifies cells with unique features, including the uptake of macromolecules at a single cell level. Future studies will address whether this represents an uptake mechanism that is conserved in mammals and how these cells affect functions of the embryonic and adult brain.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25932.001

Summary The mechanisms that regulate sarcomere assembly during myofibril formation are poorly understood. In this study, we characterise the slothu45 mutant in which the initial steps in sarcomere assembly take place, but thick filaments are absent and filamentous I-Z-I brushes fail to align or adopt correct spacing. The mutation only affects skeletal muscle and mutant embryos show no other obvious phenotypes. Surprisingly we find that the phenotype is due to mutation in one copy of a tandemly duplicated hsp90a gene. The mutation disrupts the chaperoning function of Hsp90a through interference with ATPase activity. Despite being located only 2kb away from hsp90a, hsp90a2 has no obvious role in sarcomere assembly. Loss of Hsp90a function leads to down-regulation of genes encoding sarcomeric proteins and upregulation of hsp90a and several other genes encoding proteins that may act with Hsp90a during sarcomere assembly. Our studies reveal a surprisingly specific developmental role for a single Hsp90 gene in a regulatory pathway controlling late steps in sarcomere assembly.

SUMMARYDuring tissue morphogenesis and differentiation, cells must self-renew while contemporaneously generating daughters that contribute to the growing tissue. How tissues achieve this precise balance between proliferation and differentiation is, in most instances, poorly understood. This is in part due to the difficulties in dissociating the mechanisms that underlie tissue patterning from those that regulate proliferation. In the migrating posterior lateral line primordium (PLLP), proliferation is predominantly localised to the leading zone. As cells emerge from this zone, they periodically organise into rosettes that subsequently dissociate from the primordium and differentiate as neuromasts. Despite this reiterative loss of cells, the primordium maintains its size through regenerative cell proliferation until it reaches the tail. In this study, we identify a null mutation in the Wnt-pathway transcription factor Lef1 and show that its activity is required to maintain proliferation in the progenitor pool of cells that sustains the PLLP as it undergoes migration, morphogenesis and differentiation. In absence of Lef1, the leading zone becomes depleted of cells during its migration leading to the collapse of the primordium into a couple of terminal neuromasts. We show that this behaviour resembles the process by which the PLLP normally ends its migration, suggesting that suppression of Wnt signalling is required for termination of neuromast production in the tail. Our data support a model in which Lef1 sustains proliferation of leading zone progenitors, maintaining the primordium size and defining neuromast deposition rate.

Pan-vertebrate developmental cis-regulatory elements are discernible as highly conserved noncoding elements (HCNEs) and are often dispersed over large areas around the pleiotropic genes whose expression they control. On the loci of two developmental transcription factor genes, SOX3 and PAX6, we demonstrate that HCNEs conserved between human and zebrafish can be systematically and reliably tested for their regulatory function in multiple stable transgenes in zebrafish, and their genomic reach estimated with confidence using synteny conservation and HCNE density along these loci. HCNEs of both human and zebrafish function as specific developmental enhancers in zebrafish. We show that human HCNEs result in expression patterns in zebrafish equivalent to those in mouse, establishing zebrafish as a suitable model for large-scale testing of human developmental enhancers. Orthologous human and zebrafish enhancers underwent functional evolution within their sequence and often directed related but non-identical expression patterns. Despite an evolutionary distance of 450 million years, one pax6 HCNE drove expression in identical areas when comparing zebrafish vs. human HCNEs. HCNEs from the same area often drive overlapping patterns, suggesting that multiple regulatory inputs are required to achieve robust and precise complex expression patterns exhibited by developmental genes.

SummaryBackgroundAlthough left-right asymmetries are common features of nervous systems, their developmental bases are largely unknown. In the zebrafish epithalamus, dorsal habenular neurons adopt medial (dHbm) and lateral (dHbl) subnuclear character at very different frequencies on the left and right sides. The left-sided parapineal promotes the elaboration of dHbl character in the left habenula, albeit by an unknown mechanism. Likewise, the genetic pathways acting within habenular neurons to control their asymmetric differentiated character are unknown.ResultsIn a forward genetic screen for mutations that result in loss of habenular asymmetry, we identified two mutant alleles of tcf7l2, a gene that encodes a transcriptional regulator of Wnt signaling. In tcf7l2 mutants, most neurons on both sides differentiate with dHbl identity. Consequently, the habenulae develop symmetrically, with both sides adopting a pronounced leftward character. Tcf7l2 acts cell automously in nascent equipotential neurons, and on the right side, it promotes dHbm and suppresses dHbl differentiation. On the left, the parapineal prevents this Tcf7l2-dependent process, thereby promoting dHbl differentiation.ConclusionsTcf7l2 is essential for lateralized fate selection by habenular neurons that can differentiate along two alternative pathways, thereby leading to major neural circuit asymmetries.