PUBLICATION
Temporal and spatial requirements of unplugged/MuSK function during zebrafish neuromuscular development
- Authors
- Jing, L., Gordon, L.R., Shtibin, E., and Granato, M.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-100202-9
- Date
- 2010
- Source
- PLoS One 5(1): e8843 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Granato, Michael, Jing, Lili
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Axons
- Homeodomain Proteins/genetics
- Homeodomain Proteins/physiology*
- Muscles/embryology*
- Muscles/innervation
- Nervous System/embryology*
- Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases/genetics
- Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases/physiology*
- Receptors, Cholinergic/metabolism
- Signal Transduction
- Synapses/physiology
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/physiology*
- PubMed
- 20107509 Full text @ PLoS One
Citation
Jing, L., Gordon, L.R., Shtibin, E., and Granato, M. (2010) Temporal and spatial requirements of unplugged/MuSK function during zebrafish neuromuscular development. PLoS One. 5(1):e8843.
Abstract
One of the earliest events in neuromuscular junction (NMJ) development is the accumulation of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) at the center of muscle cells. The unplugged/MuSK (muscle specific tyrosine kinase) gene is essential to initiate AChR clustering but also to restrict approaching growth cones to the muscle center, thereby coordinating pre- and postsynaptic development. To determine how unplugged/MuSK signaling coordinates these two processes, we examined the temporal and spatial requirements of unplugged/MuSK in zebrafish embryos using heat-shock inducible transgenes. Here, we show that despite its expression in muscle cells from the time they differentiate, unplugged/MuSK activity is first required just prior to the appearance of AChR clusters to simultaneously induce AChR accumulation and to guide motor axons. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ectopic expression of unplugged/MuSK throughout the muscle membrane results in wildtype-like AChR prepattern and neuromuscular synapses in the central region of muscle cells. We propose that AChR prepatterning and axonal guidance are spatio-temporally coordinated through common unplugged/MuSK signals, and that additional factor(s) restrict unplugged/MuSK signaling to a central muscle zone critical for establishing mid-muscle synaptogenesis.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping