PUBLICATION
Conservation of intracellular Wnt signaling components in dorsal-ventral axis formation in zebrafish
- Authors
- Sumoy, L., Kiefer, J., and Kimelman, D.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-990218-5
- Date
- 1999
- Source
- Development genes and evolution 209: 48-58 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Kimelman, David, Sumoy, Lauro
- Keywords
- glycogen synthase kinase-3 binding; protein dorso-ventral axis;; zebrafish; Wnt signaling; T cell factor
- MeSH Terms
-
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
- Microinjections
- Wnt Proteins
- beta Catenin
- Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases
- Trans-Activators*
- Mitogens
- Animals
- Zebrafish Proteins*
- Gene Expression
- Cytoskeletal Proteins/pharmacology
- Conserved Sequence
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Body Patterning*
- Cell Communication/genetics
- Blotting, Northern
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Zebrafish/embryology
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Glycogen Synthase Kinases
- Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3
- Carrier Proteins/isolation & purification
- Transcription Factors
- Proto-Oncogene Proteins/genetics*
- In Situ Hybridization
- Genes, Reporter
- PubMed
- 9914418 Full text @ Dev. Genes Evol.
Citation
Sumoy, L., Kiefer, J., and Kimelman, D. (1999) Conservation of intracellular Wnt signaling components in dorsal-ventral axis formation in zebrafish. Development genes and evolution. 209:48-58.
Abstract
The mechanism of early dorso-ventral axis specification in zebrafish embryos is not well understood. While beta-catenin has been clearly implicated as a determinant of the axis, the factors upstream and downstream of beta-catenin in this system are not defined. Unlike in Xenopus, where a sperm-induced cortical rotation is used to localize beta-catenin on the future dorsal side of the embryo, zebrafish do not have an obviously similar morphogenetic movement. Recently, a GSK-3 (Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3) binding protein (GBP) was identified as a novel member of the Wnt pathway required for maternal dorsal axis formation in Xenopus. GBP stabilizes beta-catenin levels by inhibiting GSK-3 and potentially provides a link between cortical rotation and beta-catenin regulation. Since zebrafish may use a different mechanism for regulating beta-catenin, we asked whether zebrafish also express a maternal GBP. We report the isolation of the zebrafish GBP gene and show that it is maternally expressed and is present as mRNA ubiquitously throughout early embryonic development. Over-expression of zebrafish GBP in frogs and fish leads to hyper-dorsalized phenotypes, similar to the effects resulting from over-expression of beta-catenin, indicating that components upstream of beta-catenin are conserved between amphibians and teleosts. We also examined whether Tcf (T cell factor) functions in zebrafish embryos. As in frogs, ectopic expression of a dominant negative form of XTcf-3 ventralizes zebrafish embryos. In addition, ectopic beta-catenin expression activates the promoter of the Tcf-dependent gene siamois, indicating that the step immediately downstream of beta-catenin is also conserved between fish and frogs.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping