Atoh8, a bHLH transcription factor, is required for the development of retina and skeletal muscle in zebrafish

Math6/atoh8, a bHLH transcription factor, is thought to be indispensable for early embryonic development and likely has important roles in vertebrate tissue-specific differentiation. However, the function of Atoh8 during early development is not clear because homozygous knockout causes embryonic let...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2010-06, Vol.5 (6), p.e10945-e10945
Main Authors: Yao, Jihua, Zhou, Jingyao, Liu, Qiaoling, Lu, Daru, Wang, Lu, Qiao, Xiaojing, Jia, William
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Analysis
Animals
Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors - chemistry
Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors - genetics
Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors - physiology
Bos taurus
Cell differentiation
Danio rerio
Developmental Biology
Developmental Biology/Embryology
Developmental Biology/Organogenesis
Differentiation
Embryogenesis
Embryonic development
Embryonic Development - physiology
Embryonic growth stage
Eye
Gene Knockout Techniques
Genetic engineering
Helix-loop-helix proteins (basic)
Homology
Humans
Hybridization analysis
Lamination
Lethality
Molecular Sequence Data
Morphogenesis
Muscle, Skeletal - embryology
Muscles
Rattus norvegicus
Retina
Retina - embryology
Rodents
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Skeletal muscle
Zebrafish
Zebrafish - genetics
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Summary:Math6/atoh8, a bHLH transcription factor, is thought to be indispensable for early embryonic development and likely has important roles in vertebrate tissue-specific differentiation. However, the function of Atoh8 during early development is not clear because homozygous knockout causes embryonic lethality in mice. We have examined the effects of the atoh8 gene on the differentiation of retina and skeletal muscle during early development in zebrafish. We isolated a Math6 homologue in zebrafish, designated as zebrafish atoh8. Whole -mount in situ hybridization analysis showed that zebrafish atoh8 is dynamically expressed mainly in developing retina and skeletal muscle. Atoh8-MO knock-down resulted in reduced eye size with disorganization of retinal lamination. The reduction of atoh8 function also affected the arrangement of paraxial cells and differentiated muscle fibers during somite morphogenesis. Our results show that Atoh8 is an important regulator for the development of both the retina and skeletal muscles necessary for neural retinal cell and myogenic differentiation during zebrafish embryogenesis.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0010945