PUBLICATION

The chianti zebrafish mutant provides a model for erythroid-specific disruption of transferrin receptor 1

Authors
Wingert, R.A., Brownlie, A., Galloway, J.L., Dooley, K., Fraenkel, P., Axe, J.L., Davidson, A.J., Barut, B., Noriega, L., Sheng, X., Zhou, Y., Tübingen 2000 Screen Consortium, and Zon, L.I.
ID
ZDB-PUB-041130-10
Date
2004
Source
Development (Cambridge, England)   131(24): 6225-6235 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Barut, Bruce, Brownlie, Alison J., Davidson, Alan, Dooley, Kim, Fraenkel, Paula, Galloway, Jenna, Sheng, Xiaoming, Wingert, Rebecca, Zhou, Yi, Zon, Leonard I.
Keywords
Zebrafish, Hematopoiesis, Transferrin receptor, Iron, Gene duplication
MeSH Terms
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/cytology
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/metabolism
  • Erythroid Cells/cytology*
  • Erythroid Cells/metabolism
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/genetics
  • Hemoglobins/metabolism
  • Iron/metabolism*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation/genetics
  • Phylogeny*
  • Receptors, Transferrin/genetics
  • Receptors, Transferrin/metabolism*
  • Zebrafish/genetics*
  • Zebrafish/metabolism
PubMed
15563524 Full text @ Development
Abstract
Iron is a crucial metal for normal development, being required for the production of heme, which is incorporated into cytochromes and hemoglobin. The zebrafish chianti (cia) mutant manifests a hypochromic, microcytic anemia after the onset of embryonic circulation, indicative of a perturbation in red blood cell hemoglobin production. We show that cia encodes tfr1a, which is specifically expressed in the developing blood and requisite only for iron uptake in erythroid precursors. In the process of isolating zebrafish tfr1, we discovered two tfr1-like genes (tfr1a and tfr1b) and a single tfr2 ortholog. Abrogation of tfr1b function using antisense morpholinos revealed that this paralog was dispensable for hemoglobin production in red cells. tfr1b morphants exhibited growth retardation and brain necrosis, similar to the central nervous system defects observed in the Tfr1 null mouse, indicating that tfr1b is probably used by non-erythroid tissues for iron acquisition. Overexpression of mouse Tfr1, mouse Tfr2, and zebrafish tfr1b partially rescued hypochromia in cia embryos, establishing that each of these transferrin receptors are capable of supporting iron uptake for hemoglobin production in vivo. Taken together, these data show that zebrafish tfr1a and tfr1b share biochemical function but have restricted domains of tissue expression, and establish a genetic model to study the specific function of Tfr1 in erythroid cells.
Genes / Markers
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping