Zhang, L., Bonilla, S., Zhang, Y., and Leung, Y.F. (2014) p35 promotes the differentiation of amacrine cell subtype in the zebrafish retina under the regulation of egr1. Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists. 243(2):315-23.
Background: Early growth response 1 (egr1) is a transcription factor (TF) for controlling the differentiation of Parvalbumin (Parv) -expressing amacrine cells (ACs) in zebrafish. However, the downstream factors of this process have not been identified. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of p35, a neuronal-specific activator of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) and a known in vitro target of egr1, in the differentiation of these ACs. Results: In the p35-knockdown retinas, Parv+ but not islet1+ ACs were specifically reduced. This phenotype was highly similar to that in the Egr1-knockdown retinas. Furthermore, p35 expression was reduced in the Egr1-knockdown retinas, particularly in the AC region; while egr1 was only modestly reduced in this region in the p35-knockdown retinas. Conclusions: p35 likely acts downstream of egr1 to control the differentiation of Parv+ ACs.
