PUBLICATION
Inactivation of zebrafish mrf4 leads to myofibril misalignment and motor axon growth disorganization
- Authors
- Wang, Y.H., Li, C.K., Lee, G.H., Tsay, H.J., Tsai, H.J., and Chen, Y.H.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-080306-21
- Date
- 2008
- Source
- Developmental Dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists 237(4): 1043-1050 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Chen, Yau-Hung, Tsay, Huey-Jen
- Keywords
- alternative splicing, mrf4, muscle regulatory factor, myf5, zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Alternative Splicing
- Animals
- Animals, Genetically Modified
- Motor Neurons/cytology
- Motor Neurons/pathology*
- Motor Neurons/physiology
- Myofibrils/metabolism
- Myofibrils/pathology*
- Myogenic Regulatory Factors/genetics
- Myogenic Regulatory Factors/metabolism*
- Neurons/cytology
- Neurons/physiology
- Oligonucleotides, Antisense/genetics
- Oligonucleotides, Antisense/metabolism
- Protein Isoforms/genetics
- Protein Isoforms/metabolism*
- Receptors, Cholinergic/metabolism
- Zebrafish/anatomy & histology*
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- Zebrafish/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism*
- PubMed
- 18297736 Full text @ Dev. Dyn.
Citation
Wang, Y.H., Li, C.K., Lee, G.H., Tsay, H.J., Tsai, H.J., and Chen, Y.H. (2008) Inactivation of zebrafish mrf4 leads to myofibril misalignment and motor axon growth disorganization. Developmental Dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists. 237(4):1043-1050.
Abstract
Mrf4 is a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor associated with myogenesis. Two mrf4 transcripts, mrf4_tv1 and mrf4_tv2, were identified in zebrafish generated by alternative splicing. To study their biological functions, we separately injected the Mrf4-morpholinos, including MO1 (mrf4_tv1:mrf4_tv2 knockdown), MO2+MO3 (mrf4_tv1:mrf4_tv2 knockdown), MO3 (mrf4_tv1 knockdown), and MO4 (mrf4_tv2 knockdown), into zebrafish embryos to observe mrf4 gene knockdown phenotypes. No phenotypic abnormalities were observed following injection with 0.5 ng of MO1 but those injected with 4.5, 9, or 13.5 ng displayed curved-body phenotypes, such as indistinct somite boundaries, and a lack of uniformly sized cell blocks. Similar results were also observed in the (MO2+MO3)-, MO3-, and MO4-injected groups. To further investigate the molecular mechanisms that lead to curved-body phenotypes, we stained embryos with alpha-bungrotoxin and specific monoclonal antibodies F59, Znp1, and Zn5 to detect morphological changes in acetyl-choline receptor (AChR) clusters, muscle fibers, common path of the primary neurons, and secondary neurons axonal projections, respectively. Our results show that the muscle fibers of mrf4_(tv1:tv2)-morphant aligned disorderly and lost their integrity and attachment, while the defects became milder in either mrf4_tv1-morphant or mrf4_tv2-morphant. On the other hand, reduced axonal projections and AChR clusters were found in both mrf4_tv2-morphant and mrf4_(tv1:tv2)-morphant but distributed normally in the mrf4_tv1-morphant. We conclude that Mrf4_tv2 is involved in alignment of muscle fibers, and Mrf4_tv1 might have cooperative function with Mrf4_tv2 in muscle fiber alignment, without affecting the muscle-nerve connection.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping