PUBLICATION

Zebrafish mdk2, a novel secreted midkine, participates in posterior neurogenesis

Authors
Winkler, C. and Moon, R.T.
ID
ZDB-PUB-010130-2
Date
2001
Source
Developmental Biology   229(1): 102-118 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Moon, Randall T., Winkler, Christoph
Keywords
neural induction; neural patterning; midkines; neural crest; posteriorization; planar signaling; heparin-binding growth factors; expression cloning
MeSH Terms
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Body Patterning
  • Carrier Proteins
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cytokines*
  • Embryonic Induction
  • Gastrula
  • Head/embryology
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation
  • Nerve Growth Factors
  • Nervous System/embryology*
  • Neural Crest/embryology
  • Neurons/cytology*
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
11133157 Full text @ Dev. Biol.
Abstract
Patterning the neural plate in vertebrates depends on complex interactions between a variety of secreted growth factors. Here we describe a novel secreted factor in zebrafish, named mdk2, related to the midkine family of heparin-binding growth factors that is involved in posterior neural development. mdk2 is expressed shortly after the onset of gastrulation in the presumptive neural plate cells of the epiblast, and this expression is enhanced by exogenous retinoic acid. Ectopic expression of mdk2 enhances neural crest cell fates at the lateral edges of the caudal neural plate, concomitant with a repression of anterior structures and mesendodermal and ectodermal markers. Reciprocally, ectopic expression of a dominant negative mdk2 results in severe deficiencies of structures posterior to the midbrain-hindbrain boundary, with negligible effects on anterior structures. In these embryos, the expression of hindbrain and neural crest markers is strongly reduced, and the formation of posterior primary moto- and sensory neurons is blocked. Analyses in mutant zebrafish embryos shows that expression of mdk2 is independent of FGF8 and nodal-related-1 signaling, but is under negative control of BMP signaling. These data support the hypothesis that mdk2 participates in posterior neural development in zebrafish.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping