PUBLICATION
Transcriptional study reveals a potential leptin-dependent gene regulatory network in zebrafish brain
- Authors
- Ahi, E.P., Tsakoumis, E., Brunel, M., Schmitz, M.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-210709-10
- Date
- 2021
- Source
- Fish physiology and biochemistry 47(4): 1283-1298 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Keywords
- Brain, Feeding, Gene expression, Gene regulatory network, Leptin receptor, Zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Brain/metabolism*
- Female
- Fish Proteins/genetics
- Gene Expression
- Gene Regulatory Networks
- Leptin/metabolism*
- Male
- Transcription Factors/genetics
- Transcription, Genetic
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Zebrafish/metabolism
- PubMed
- 34236575 Full text @ Fish Physiol. Biochem.
Citation
Ahi, E.P., Tsakoumis, E., Brunel, M., Schmitz, M. (2021) Transcriptional study reveals a potential leptin-dependent gene regulatory network in zebrafish brain. Fish physiology and biochemistry. 47(4):1283-1298.
Abstract
The signal mediated by leptin hormone and its receptor is a major regulator of body weight, food intake and metabolism. In mammals and many teleost fish species, leptin has an anorexigenic role and inhibits food intake by influencing the appetite centres in the hypothalamus. However, the regulatory connections between leptin and downstream genes mediating its appetite-regulating effects are still not fully explored in teleost fish. In this study, we used a loss of function leptin receptor zebrafish mutant and real-time quantitative PCR to assess brain expression patterns of several previously identified anorexigenic genes downstream of leptin signal under different feeding conditions (normal feeding, 7-day fasting, 2 and 6-h refeeding). These downstream factors include members of cart genes, crhb and gnrh2, as well as selected genes co-expressed with them based on a zebrafish co-expression database. Here, we found a potential gene expression network (GRN) comprising the abovementioned genes by a stepwise approach of identifying co-expression modules and predicting their upstream regulators. Among the transcription factors (TFs) predicted as potential upstream regulators of this GRN, we found expression pattern of sp3a to be correlated with transcriptional changes of the downstream gene network. Interestingly, the expression and transcriptional activity of Sp3 orthologous gene in mammals have already been implicated to be under the influence of leptin signal. These findings suggest a potentially conserved regulatory connection between leptin and sp3a, which is predicted to act as a transcriptional driver of a downstream gene network in the zebrafish brain.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping