PUBLICATION

A role for alpha1 tubulin-expressing Muller glia in regeneration of the injured zebrafish retina

Authors
Fausett, B.V., and Goldman, D.
ID
ZDB-PUB-060616-42
Date
2006
Source
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience   26(23): 6303-6313 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Goldman, Dan
Keywords
Müller glia, stem cells, regeneration, retina, zebrafish, tubulin
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Gene Expression
  • Multipotent Stem Cells/pathology
  • Neuroglia/metabolism*
  • Neuroglia/pathology
  • Neurons/pathology
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Regeneration*
  • Retina/injuries*
  • Retina/pathology
  • Retina/physiopathology*
  • Transgenes
  • Tubulin/genetics
  • Tubulin/metabolism*
  • Wounds and Injuries/physiopathology
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
16763038 Full text @ J. Neurosci.
Abstract
Alpha1 tubulin (alpha1T) is a neuron-specific microtubule protein whose expression is induced in the developing and regenerating CNS. In the adult CNS, alpha1T expression remains high in neural progenitors. Transgenic zebrafish harboring a 1.7 kb alpha1T promoter fragment along with the first exon and intron express the transgene in a manner that recapitulates expression of the endogenous gene. We recently showed that this promoter mediates gene induction in retinal ganglion cells during optic nerve regeneration and in a subset of Muller glia that proliferate after retinal injury (Senut et al., 2004). To further characterize these Muller glia, we generated transgenic fish harboring an alpha1T promoter fragment that is specifically induced in these cells after retinal damage. Transgene expression, bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling, and stem cell marker expression suggested that alpha1T-expressing Muller glia dedifferentiate and become multipotent in response to injury. In addition, green fluorescent protein and BrdU-mediated lineage tracing combined with retinal gene expression analysis indicated that alpha1T-expressing Muller glia were capable of generating retinal neurons and glia. These data strongly suggest alpha1T-expressing Muller glia dedifferentiate and mediate regeneration of the injured zebrafish retina.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping