Expression of ventral diencephalon‐enriched genes in zebrafish

Abstract

Dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the vertebrate di-and mesencephalon play essential roles in movement control, endocrine modulation and many other important physiological activities. To identify genes that may regulate the specification and differentiation of diencephalic DA neurons in zebrafish, the spatial and temporal expression pattern of a set of genes was investigated. In situ hybridization analysis revealed that expression of DNA binding inhibitor 3 (Id3), early B cell factor 2 (Ebf2), Ebf3, Iroquois related homeobox 1 (Irx1), Kruppel-like factor 7 (Klf7), mab-21-like 1 (Mab21l1), fatty acid binding protein 7 (Fabp7) and stathmin-like 4 (Stmn4), were enriched in the diencephalon of zebrafish. Among these genes, Id3 was expressed specifically in a subset of DA neurons in the ventral diencephalon, with co-expression of neurogenin1 (Ngn1). Alteration of expression levels of Id3 inhibited maturation of developing DA neurons. Taken together, our study provides genetic characteristics of DA neurons in the diencephalon of zebrafish. Developmental Dynamics 239:3368-3379,

Krüpple-like factors 7 and 6a mRNA expression in adult zebrafish central nervous system

“…In the adult mouse CNS, Klf7 expression is mainly restricted to granule cells in the cerebellum, although weak expression (based on staining intensity) was seen in the cortex, hippocampus and spinal cord (Laub et al, 2001a; Lei et al, 2001). This expression pattern is similar to that in zebrafish CNS in that klf7 expression begins in restricted embryonic brain regions and its expression increases as development proceeds (Thisse and Thisse, 2004; Li et al, 2010); and klf7 is strongly expressed in the granular regions of the adult cerebellum (this study). Moreover, similar regions (e.g.…”

“…In the vertebrate CNS, Klf7 / klf7 expression was examined in embryonic zebrafish (Thisse and Thisse, 2004; Li et al, 2010), developing and adult mice (Laub et al, 2001a; Lei et al, 2001). During mouse embryogenesis, Klf7 expression becomes detectable in restricted regions in dorsal forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain and spinal cord in E9.5-E10.5 mice.…”

“…Its mRNA ( Klf7 / klf7 ) is strongly expressed in developing mouse (Laub et al, 2001a) and zebrafish CNS (Thisse and Thisse, 2004; Li et al, 2010; Xue et al, 2015). Klf7 mutant mice exhibit defects in several brain structures including olfactory bulb, cerebral cortex, hippocampus and retinal axons (Laub et al, 2005).…”

Genome-wide analysis of the zebrafish Klf family identifies two genes important for erythroid maturation

“…For example, klf2b, klf4 and klf15 were highly expressed in epidermal cells, although klf15 expression was also detected in myotomes. klf7a was reported to be expressed in the diencephalon of zebrafish (Li et al, 2010), and here, we detected expression of klf7a in the dorsal thalamus and the olfactory bulb and the expression of klf7b in the cranial ganglion. There were also several newly isolated klf factors that showed a specific expression pattern in zebrafish.…”

Dopaminergic and noradrenergic circuit development in zebrafish

“…Further, during neurogenesis, Notch signaling via DeltaA and DeltaD ligands is involved in maintaining olig2-and ngn1-expressing DA precursors thereby regulating the size of the sim1a/otp positive cell population . Further systematic analysis of expression of transcription factors in areas of DA differentiation may lead to a more detailed understanding of transcriptional regulation in the DA systems (Li et al, 2010). A detailed understanding of transcriptional control will also involve the identification of specific response elements in the control regions of DA differentiation genes, which has only recently come to fruition with the identification of control elements of otp genes (Fujimoto et al, 2011) and th gene (Meng et al, 2008).…”