PUBLICATION

MicroRNA-203a regulates fast muscle differentiation by targeting dmrt2a in zebrafish embryos

Authors
Lu, C., Wu, J., Xiong, S., Zhang, X., Zhang, J., Mei, J.
ID
ZDB-PUB-170510-9
Date
2017
Source
Gene   625: 49-54 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Mei, Jie
Keywords
Fast muscle, Slow muscle, dmrt2a, miR-203
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics*
  • DNA-Binding Proteins/metabolism
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
  • MicroRNAs/genetics*
  • Muscle, Skeletal/embryology
  • Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism*
  • Myosin Heavy Chains/genetics
  • Myosin Heavy Chains/metabolism
  • Transcription Factors/genetics*
  • Transcription Factors/metabolism
  • Zebrafish
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
PubMed
28483596 Full text @ Gene
Abstract
Dmrt2b (doublesex and mab-3 related transcription factor 2b) has been revealed to be involved in zebrafish slow muscle development. However, the function of dmrt2a, a paralogue gene of dmrt2b, remains unclear during zebrafish muscle development. Here, we demonstrated that knockdown of dmrt2a resulted in severe developmental defects, and caused downregulation of fast muscle marker myhz-2 and upregulation of slow muscle marker myhz-5, respectively. It is known that microRNAs (miRNAs) control many biological events including muscle development. Dmrt2a was predicted to be a target gene of miR-203, which was further verified by luciferase reporter assay, since miR-203a was found to directly reduce the expression of dmrt2a by binding to the seed sequence of its 3'UTR. After miR-203a injection into zebrafish embryos, the expression of dmrt2a was significantly inhibited. Similar to the effect of dmrt2a knockdown, miR-203a overexpression led to downregulation of myhz-2 and upregulation of myhz-5. Our studies indicated that miR-203a directly regulated dmrt2a expression to control fast and slow muscle differentiation, while overexpression of miR-203a or knockdown of dmrt2a will impair fast muscle development and promote slow muscle development.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping