Class III POU Genes of Zebrafish Are Predominantly Expressed in the Central Nervous System

POU genes encode a family of transcription factors involved in a wide variety of cell fate decisions and in the regulation of differentiation pathways. We have searched for POU genes in the zebrafish, a popular model organism for the study of early development of vertebrates. Besides five putative p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nucleic acids research 1996-12, Vol.24 (24), p.4874-4881
Main Authors: Spaniol, Philipp, Bornmann, Caroline, Hauptmann, Giselbert, Gerster, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Central Nervous System - embryology
Central Nervous System - metabolism
Cloning, Molecular
Danio rerio
DNA, Complementary
DNA-Binding Proteins - genetics
Freshwater
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
Humans
Molecular Sequence Data
Polymerase Chain Reaction
POU Domain Factors
Pseudogenes
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Transcription Factors - genetics
Zebrafish - embryology
Zebrafish - genetics
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Summary:POU genes encode a family of transcription factors involved in a wide variety of cell fate decisions and in the regulation of differentiation pathways. We have searched for POU genes in the zebrafish, a popular model organism for the study of early development of vertebrates. Besides five putative pseudogenes we have identified five POU genes that are expressed during embryogenesis. Probes obtained by PCR were used to isolate full-length cDNAs. Four of the isolated genes encode proteins with class III POU domains. Analysis of genomic clones suggests that the fish genes in general do not contain introns, similar to class III genes of mammals. However, the C-termini of two of the encoded proteins vary due to facultative splicing of a short intervening sequence. These two genes show very strong similarities in their sequence. They have probably arisen by gene duplication, possibly as part of a larger scale duplication of part of the zebrafish genome. Analysis of the expression of the class III genes shows that they are predominantly expressed in the central nervous system and that they may play important roles in patterning the embryonic brain.
ISSN:0305-1048
1362-4962
DOI:10.1093/nar/24.24.4874