PUBLICATION
Disruption of Eaat2b, a glutamate transporter, results in abnormal motor behaviors in developing zebrafish
- Authors
- McKeown, K.A., Moreno, R., Hall, V.L., Ribera, A.B., and Downes, G.B.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-111122-26
- Date
- 2012
- Source
- Developmental Biology 362(2): 162-171 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Downes, Gerald
- Keywords
- behavior, zebrafish, glutamate, transporter, hindbrain, spinal cord
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Chromosome Mapping
- Cloning, Molecular
- DNA, Complementary/genetics
- Dyskinesias/genetics*
- Dyskinesias/physiopathology
- Electrophysiology
- Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 2/genetics
- Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 2/metabolism*
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/genetics
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/physiology*
- Glutamic Acid/metabolism
- In Situ Hybridization
- Larva/physiology
- Morpholinos/genetics
- Mutation/genetics
- Neuroglia/metabolism
- Neurons/metabolism
- Physical Stimulation
- Swimming/physiology*
- Video Recording
- Zebrafish
- PubMed
- 22094018 Full text @ Dev. Biol.
Citation
McKeown, K.A., Moreno, R., Hall, V.L., Ribera, A.B., and Downes, G.B. (2012) Disruption of Eaat2b, a glutamate transporter, results in abnormal motor behaviors in developing zebrafish. Developmental Biology. 362(2):162-171.
Abstract
Analysis of zebrafish mutants that have defects in motor behavior can allow entrée into the hindbrain and spinal cord networks that control locomotion. Here, we report that zebrafish techno trousers (tnt) locomotor mutants harbor a mutation in slc1a2b, which encodes Eaat2b, a plasma membrane glutamate transporter. We used tnt mutants to explore the effects of impaired glutamate transporter activity on locomotor network function. Wild-type larvae perform robust swimming behavior in response to touch stimuli at two and four days after fertilization. In contrast, tnt mutant larvae demonstrate aberrant, exaggerated body bends beginning two days after fertilization and they are almost fully paralyzed four days after fertilization. We show that slc1a2b is expressed in glial cells in a dynamic fashion across development, which may explain the abnormal sequence of motor behaviors demonstrated by tnt mutants. We also show that tnt larvae demonstrate enhanced excitation of neurons, consistent with the predicted effects of excessive glutamate. These findings illustrate the dynamic regulation and importance of glutamate transporters during development. Since glutamate toxicity caused by EAAT2 dysfunction is thought to promote several different neurological disorders in humans, including epilepsy and neurodegenerative diseases, tnt mutants hold promise as a new tool to better understand these pathologies.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping