RESUMO
Members of the Ikaros family of zinc-finger transcription factors have been shown to be critical for immune and blood cell development. However, the role of the most divergent family member, Pegasus, has remained elusive, although it shows conservation to invertebrate Hunchback proteins that influence embryonic patterning through regulation of homeodomain genes. Zebrafish was employed as a relevant model to investigate the function of Pegasus since it possesses a single pegasus orthologue with high homology to its mammalian counterparts. During zebrafish embryogenesis pegasus transcripts were initially maternally-derived and later replaced by zygotic expression in the diencephalon, tectum, hindbrain, thymus, eye, and ultimately the exocrine pancreas and intestine. Morpholino-mediated knockdown of the zebrafish pegasus gene resulted in disrupted left-right asymmetry of the gut and pancreas. Molecular analysis indicated that zebrafish Pegasus localised to the nucleus in discrete non-nucleolar structures and bound the 'atypical' DNA sequence GN3GN2G, confirming its presumed role as a transcriptional regulator. In vivo transcriptome analysis identified candidate target genes, several of which encoded homeodomain transcription factors. One of these, pitx2, implicated in left-right asymmetry, possessed appropriate 'atypical' Pegasus binding sites in its promoter. Knockdown of Pegasus affected both the level and asymmetry of pitx2 expression, as well as disrupting the asymmetry of the lefty2 and spaw genes, explaining the perturbed left-right patterning in pegasus morphants. Collectively these results provide the first definitive insights into the in vivo role of Pegasus, supporting the notion that it acts as a broader regulator of development, with potential parallels to the related invertebrate Hunchback proteins.
Assuntos
Padronização Corporal/genética , Regulação da Expressão Gênica no Desenvolvimento , Fator de Transcrição Ikaros/metabolismo , Fatores de Transcrição/genética , Proteínas de Peixe-Zebra/metabolismo , Peixe-Zebra/embriologia , Peixe-Zebra/genética , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Animais , Sequência de Bases , Padronização Corporal/efeitos dos fármacos , Embrião não Mamífero/efeitos dos fármacos , Embrião não Mamífero/metabolismo , Desenvolvimento Embrionário/efeitos dos fármacos , Desenvolvimento Embrionário/genética , Regulação da Expressão Gênica no Desenvolvimento/efeitos dos fármacos , Técnicas de Silenciamento de Genes , Marcação de Genes , Células HEK293 , Humanos , Fator de Transcrição Ikaros/química , Fator de Transcrição Ikaros/genética , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Morfolinos/farmacologia , Fatores de Transcrição/metabolismo , Proteínas de Peixe-Zebra/química , Proteínas de Peixe-Zebra/genéticaRESUMO
Considerable progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis of normal white blood cell development and its perturbation in disease through the use of clinical studies and traditional animal and cell line models. Despite this, however, many questions are still being answered and white blood cell disorders, including leukemia and lymphoma, remain a significant health problem. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as a powerful alternative vertebrate model for the study of development and disease. We review the recent application of zebrafish to the study of white blood cell development and its disruption, particularly leukemogenesis. Such studies have highlighted the overall conservation of these processes throughout vertebrates, and establish zebrafish as a useful experimental model. This organism is now poised to make an important contribution to our understanding of the underlying genetic control of white blood cell development and its disruption, as well as the identification of new therapeutic agents.
