PUBLICATION

A globin-family protein, cytoglobin 1, is involved in the development of neural crest-derived tissues and organs in zebrafish

Authors
Takahashi, K., Ito, Y., Yoshimura, M., Nikaido, M., Yuikawa, T., Kawamura, A., Tsuda, S., Kage, D., Yamasu, K.
ID
ZDB-PUB-201229-21
Date
2020
Source
Developmental Biology   472: 1-17 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Kawamura, Akinori, Nikaido, Masataka, Tsuda, Sachiko, Yamasu, Kyo
Keywords
Cytoglobin, Globin family, Mutagenesis screening, Neural crest cell, Oxygen metabolism, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Apoptosis/genetics
  • CRISPR-Cas Systems
  • Cell Differentiation/genetics
  • Chromosomes/genetics
  • Cytoglobin/genetics*
  • Cytoglobin/metabolism
  • Embryonic Development/genetics
  • Gene Expression
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
  • Gene Knockdown Techniques
  • Mutation
  • Neural Crest/cytology*
  • Neural Crest/embryology*
  • Neural Crest/metabolism
  • Phenotype
  • Zebrafish/embryology*
  • Zebrafish/genetics*
  • Zebrafish/metabolism
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
PubMed
33358912 Full text @ Dev. Biol.
Abstract
The zebrafish is an excellent model animal that is amenable to forward genetics approaches. To uncover unknown developmental regulatory mechanisms in vertebrates, we conducted chemical mutagenesis screening and identified a novel mutation, kanazutsi (kzt). This mutation is recessive, and its homozygotes are embryonic lethal. Mutant embryos suffered from a variety of morphological defects, such as head flattening, pericardial edema, circulation defects, disrupted patterns of melanophore distribution, dwarf eyes, a defective jaw, and extensive apoptosis in the head, which indicates that the main affected tissues are derived from neural crest cells (NCCs). The expression of tissue-specific markers in kzt mutants showed that the early specification of NCCs was normal, but their later differentiation was severely affected. The mutation was mapped to chromosome 3 by linkage analyses, near cytoglobin 1 (cygb1), the product of which is a globin-family respiratory protein. cygb1 expression was activated during somitogenesis in somites and cranial NCCs in wild-type embryos but was significantly downregulated in mutant embryos, despite the normal primary structure of the gene product. The kzt mutation was phenocopied by cygb1 knockdown with low-dose morpholino oligos and was partially rescued by cygb1 overexpression. Both severe knockdown and null mutation of cygb1, established by the CRISPR/Cas9 technique, resulted in far more severe defects at early stages. Thus, it is highly likely that the downregulation of cygb1 is responsible for many, if not all, of the phenotypes of the kzt mutation. These results reveal a requirement for globin family proteins in vertebrate embryos, particularly in the differentiation and subsequent development of NCCs.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping