PUBLICATION
Duplicated zebrafish relaxin-3 gene shows a different expression pattern from that of the co-orthologue gene
- Authors
- Donizetti, A., Fiengo, M., Minucci, S., and Aniello, F.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-090929-12
- Date
- 2009
- Source
- Development, growth & differentiation 51(8): 715-722 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Aniello, Francesco, Donizetti, Aldo, Fiengo, Marcella
- Keywords
- brain, gene duplication, periaqueductal gray, rln3 gene, sub-functionalization
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Blotting, Southern
- Cloning, Molecular
- Embryo, Nonmammalian
- Gene Duplication
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
- Genes, Duplicate/genetics*
- In Situ Hybridization
- Periaqueductal Gray/embryology*
- Relaxin/genetics*
- Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Synteny/genetics
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics*
- PubMed
- 19780785 Full text @ Dev. Growth Diff.
Citation
Donizetti, A., Fiengo, M., Minucci, S., and Aniello, F. (2009) Duplicated zebrafish relaxin-3 gene shows a different expression pattern from that of the co-orthologue gene. Development, growth & differentiation. 51(8):715-722.
Abstract
Relaxin-3 (Rln3) is thought to function as a neurotransmitter mainly produced in the mammalian nucleus incertus and is involved in different neural processes; among them, the stress response and food intake. Here, we report the expression pattern of the duplicated zebrafish rln3b gene and compare it to the previously analyszd spatial expression pattern of the rln3a gene. Both genes, during the embryogenesis and in the adult fish, are active and show relevant differences in their expression patterns. rln3b is diffusely expressed in the brain until the pharyngula period, when, at 48 h postfertilization (hpf), the expression becomes restricted to the periaqueductal gray, where it persists also at later developmental stages. No expression was observed in the nucleus incertus cells that express the rln3a gene from 72 hpf. In the adult, both genes are expressed in brain, but only rln3b transcript is revealed in testis at the similar expression level, whereas in the other analyzed tissues the transcript levels are lower or absent. Both the putative mature protein sequences are highly conserved, this feature and their differential expression patterns might indicate a sub-functionalization during evolution with the consequent retention of the two paralogues genes.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping