Chemokines are secreted proteins that regulate a range of processes in eukaryotic organisms. Interestingly, different chemokine receptors control distinct biological processes, and the same receptor ...can direct different cellular responses, but the basis for this phenomenon is not known. To understand this property of chemokine signaling, we examined the function of the chemokine receptors Cxcr4a, Cxcr4b, Ccr7, Ccr9 in the context of diverse processes in embryonic development in zebrafish. Our results reveal that the specific response to chemokine signaling is dictated by cell-type-specific chemokine receptor signal interpretation modules (CRIM) rather than by chemokine-receptor-specific signals. Thus, a generic signal provided by different receptors leads to discrete responses that depend on the specific identity of the cell that receives the signal. We present the implications of employing generic signals in different contexts such as gastrulation, axis specification and single-cell migration.
Genetic factors predictive of severe adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) are largely unknown. To identify genetic variation associated with severe AIS, we performed an exome-wide association study ...of 457 severe AIS cases and 987 controls. We find a missense SNP in SLC39A8 (p.Ala391Thr, rs13107325) associated with severe AIS (P = 1.60 × 10
, OR = 2.01, CI = 1.54-2.62). This pleiotropic SNP was previously associated with BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood manganese level. We replicate the association in a second cohort (841 cases and 1095 controls) resulting in a combined P = 7.02 × 10
, OR = 1.94, CI = 1.63-2.34. Clinically, the minor allele of rs13107325 is associated with greater spinal curvature, decreased height, increased BMI and lower plasma manganese in our AIS cohort. Functional studies demonstrate reduced manganese influx mediated by the SLC39A8 p.Ala391Thr variant and vertebral abnormalities, impaired growth, and decreased motor activity in slc39a8 mutant zebrafish. Our results suggest the possibility that scoliosis may be amenable to dietary intervention.
Graded Hedgehog (Hh) signaling patterns the spinal cord dorsoventral axis by inducing and positioning distinct precursor domains, each of which gives rise to a different type of neuron. These domains ...also generate glial cells, but the full range of cell types that any one precursor population produces and the mechanisms that diversify cell fate are unknown. By fate mapping and clonal analysis in zebrafish, we show that individual ventral precursor cells that express olig2 can form motoneurons, interneurons and oligodendrocytes. However, olig2+ precursors are not developmentally equivalent, but instead produce subsets of progeny cells in a spatially and temporally biased manner. Using genetic and pharmacological manipulations, we provide evidence that these biases emerge from Hh acting over time to set, maintain, subdivide and enlarge the olig2+ precursor domain and subsequently specify oligodendrocyte development. Our studies show that spatial and temporal differences in Hh signaling within a common population of neural precursors can contribute to cell fate diversification.
Embryonic axis formation in vertebrates is initiated by the establishment of the dorsal Nieuwkoop blastula organizer, marked by the nuclear accumulation of maternal β-catenin, a transcriptional ...effector of canonical Wnt signaling. Known regulators of axis specification include the canonical Wnt pathway components that positively or negatively affect β-catenin. An involvement of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) was hypothesized from experiments implicating G proteins and intracellular calcium in axis formation, but such GPCRs have not been identified. Mobilization of intracellular Ca(2+) stores generates Ca(2+) transients in the superficial blastomeres of zebrafish blastulae when the nuclear accumulation of maternal β-catenin marks the formation of the Nieuwkoop organizer. Moreover, intracellular Ca(2+) downstream of non-canonical Wnt ligands was proposed to inhibit β-catenin and axis formation, but mechanisms remain unclear. Here we report a novel function of Ccr7 GPCR and its chemokine ligand Ccl19.1, previously implicated in chemotaxis and other responses of dendritic cells in mammals, as negative regulators of β-catenin and axis formation in zebrafish. We show that interference with the maternally and ubiquitously expressed zebrafish Ccr7 or Ccl19.1 expands the blastula organizer and the dorsoanterior tissues at the expense of the ventroposterior ones. Conversely, Ccr7 or Ccl19.1 overexpression limits axis formation. Epistatic analyses demonstrate that Ccr7 acts downstream of Ccl19.1 ligand and upstream of β-catenin transcriptional targets. Moreover, Ccl19/Ccr7 signaling reduces the level and nuclear accumulation of maternal β-catenin and its axis-inducing activity and can also inhibit the Gsk3β -insensitive form of β-catenin. Mutational and pharmacologic experiments reveal that Ccr7 functions during axis formation as a GPCR to inhibit β-catenin, likely by promoting Ca(2+) transients throughout the blastula. Our study delineates a novel negative, Gsk3β-independent control mechanism of β-catenin and implicates Ccr7 as a long-hypothesized GPCR regulating vertebrate axis formation.
Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) allow targeted gene inactivation in a wide range of model organisms. However, construction of target-specific ZFNs is technically challenging. Here, we evaluate a ...straightforward modular assembly-based approach for ZFN construction and gene inactivation in zebrafish. From an archive of 27 different zinc-finger modules, we assembled more than 70 different zinc-finger cassettes and evaluated their specificity using a bacterial one-hybrid assay. In parallel, we constructed ZFNs from these cassettes and tested their ability to induce lesions in zebrafish embryos. We found that the majority of zinc-finger proteins assembled from these modules have favorable specificities and nearly one-third of modular ZFNs generated lesions at their targets in the zebrafish genome. To facilitate the application of ZFNs within the zebrafish community we constructed a public database of sites in the zebrafish genome that can be targeted using this archive. Importantly, we generated new germline mutations in eight different genes, confirming that this is a viable platform for heritable gene inactivation in vertebrates. Characterization of one of these mutants, gata2a, revealed an unexpected role for this transcription factor in vascular development. This work provides a resource to allow targeted germline gene inactivation in zebrafish and highlights the benefit of a definitive reverse genetic strategy to reveal gene function.
Notch signaling plays a well-described role in regulating the formation of neurons from proliferative neural precursors in vertebrates but whether, as in flies, it also specifies sibling cells for ...different neuronal fates is not known. Ventral spinal cord precursors called pMN cells produce mostly motoneurons and oligodendrocytes, but recent lineage-marking experiments reveal that they also make astrocytes, ependymal cells and interneurons. Our own clonal analysis of pMN cells in zebrafish showed that some produce a primary motoneuron and KA' interneuron at their final division. We investigated the possibility that Notch signaling regulates a motoneuron-interneuron fate decision using a combination of mutant, transgenic and pharmacological manipulations of Notch activity. We show that continuous absence of Notch activity produces excess primary motoneurons and a deficit of KA' interneurons, whereas transient inactivation preceding neurogenesis results in an excess of both cell types. By contrast, activation of Notch signaling at the neural plate stage produces excess KA' interneurons and a deficit of primary motoneurons. Furthermore, individual pMN cells produce similar kinds of neurons at their final division in mib mutant embryos, which lack Notch signaling. These data provide evidence that, among some postmitotic daughters of pMN cells, Notch promotes KA' interneuron identity and inhibits primary motoneuron fate, raising the possibility that Notch signaling diversifies vertebrate neuron type by mediating similar binary fate decisions.
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a common, dominantly inherited genetic disorder that results from mutations in the neurofibromin 1 (NF1) gene. Affected individuals demonstrate abnormalities in ...neural-crest-derived tissues that include hyperpigmented skin lesions and benign peripheral nerve sheath tumors. NF1 patients also have a predisposition to malignancies including juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), optic glioma, glioblastoma, schwannoma and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs). In an effort to better define the molecular and cellular determinants of NF1 disease pathogenesis in vivo, we employed targeted mutagenesis strategies to generate zebrafish harboring stable germline mutations in nf1a and nf1b, orthologues of NF1. Animals homozygous for loss-of-function alleles of nf1a or nf1b alone are phenotypically normal and viable. Homozygous loss of both alleles in combination generates larval phenotypes that resemble aspects of the human disease and results in larval lethality between 7 and 10 days post fertilization. nf1-null larvae demonstrate significant central and peripheral nervous system defects. These include aberrant proliferation and differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), dysmorphic myelin sheaths and hyperplasia of Schwann cells. Loss of nf1 contributes to tumorigenesis as demonstrated by an accelerated onset and increased penetrance of high-grade gliomas and MPNSTs in adult nf1a(+/-); nf1b(-/-); p53(e7/e7) animals. nf1-null larvae also demonstrate significant motor and learning defects. Importantly, we identify and quantitatively analyze a novel melanophore phenotype in nf1-null larvae, providing the first animal model of the pathognomonic pigmentation lesions of NF1. Together, these findings support a role for nf1a and nf1b as potent tumor suppressor genes that also function in the development of both central and peripheral glial cells as well as melanophores in zebrafish.
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