PUBLICATION

Molecular and cellular determinants of motor asymmetry in zebrafish

Authors
Horstick, E.J., Bayleyen, Y., Burgess, H.A.
ID
ZDB-PUB-200305-3
Date
2020
Source
Nature communications   11: 1170 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Burgess, Harold, Horstick, Eric
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Diencephalon/physiology
  • Eye Proteins/genetics
  • Habenula/physiology
  • Larva/physiology
  • Motor Activity/physiology*
  • Mutation
  • Neurons/physiology*
  • Phototaxis
  • Receptors, Notch/metabolism
  • Reflex, Startle
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases/genetics
  • Zebrafish/physiology*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
PubMed
32127541 Full text @ Nat. Commun.
Abstract
Asymmetries in motor behavior, such as human hand preference, are observed throughout bilateria. However, neural substrates and developmental signaling pathways that impose underlying functional lateralization on a broadly symmetric nervous system are unknown. Here we report that in the absence of over-riding visual information, zebrafish larvae show intrinsic lateralized motor behavior that is mediated by a cluster of 60 posterior tuberculum (PT) neurons in the forebrain. PT neurons impose motor bias via a projection through the habenular commissure. Acquisition of left/right identity is disrupted by heterozygous mutations in mosaic eyes and mindbomb, genes that regulate Notch signaling. These results define the neuronal substrate for motor asymmetry in a vertebrate and support the idea that haploinsufficiency for genes in a core developmental pathway destabilizes left/right identity.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping