PUBLICATION
Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 and neuregulin 1 are required for the specification of oligodendrocytes and neurones in the zebrafish brain
- Authors
- Wood, J.D., Bonath, F., Kumar, S., Ross, C.A., and Cunliffe, V.T.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-081114-9
- Date
- 2009
- Source
- Human molecular genetics 18(3): 391-404 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Cunliffe, Vincent
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors/genetics
- Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors/metabolism
- Body Patterning*
- Humans
- Nerve Tissue Proteins/genetics
- Nerve Tissue Proteins/metabolism*
- Neuregulin-1/genetics
- Neuregulin-1/metabolism*
- Neurons/metabolism*
- Oligodendroglia/metabolism*
- Rhombencephalon/embryology
- Rhombencephalon/growth & development*
- Rhombencephalon/metabolism
- Schizophrenia/genetics
- Schizophrenia/metabolism
- Signal Transduction
- Zebrafish/embryology
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Zebrafish/growth & development
- Zebrafish/metabolism
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism*
- PubMed
- 18996920 Full text @ Hum. Mol. Genet.
Citation
Wood, J.D., Bonath, F., Kumar, S., Ross, C.A., and Cunliffe, V.T. (2009) Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 and neuregulin 1 are required for the specification of oligodendrocytes and neurones in the zebrafish brain. Human molecular genetics. 18(3):391-404.
Abstract
Schizophrenia may arise from subtle abnormalities in brain development due to alterations in the functions of candidate susceptibility genes such as Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) and Neuregulin 1 (NRG1). To provide novel insights into the functions of DISC1 in brain development, we mapped the expression of zebrafish disc1 and set out to characterise its role in early embryonic development using morpholino antisense methods. These studies revealed a critical requirement for disc1 in oligodendrocyte development by promoting specification of olig2-positive cells in the hindbrain and other brain regions. Since NRG1 has well-documented roles in myelination, we also analysed the roles of nrg1 and ErbB signalling in zebrafish brain development and we observed strikingly similar defects to those seen in disc1 morphant embryos. In addition to their effects on oligodendrocyte development, knock down of disc1 or nrg1 caused near total loss of olig2-positive cerebellar neurones, but caused no apparent loss of spinal motor neurones. These findings suggest that disc1 and nrg1 function in common or related pathways controlling development of oligodendrocytes and neurones from olig2-expressing precursor cells. Like DISC1 and NRG1, OLIG2 and ERBB4 are promising candidate susceptibility genes for schizophrenia. Hence our findings in the zebrafish embryo suggest that hitherto unappreciated neurodevelopmental connections may exist between key human schizophrenia susceptibility genes. These connections could be investigated in Disc1 and Nrg1 mouse models and in genetically defined groups of patients in order to determine whether they are relevant to the pathobiology of schizophrenia.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping