The zebrafish mutants for the V-ATPase subunits d, ac45, E, H and c and their variable pigment dilution phenotype
- Authors
- Ramos-Balderas, J.L., Carrillo-Rosas, S., Guzman, A., Navarro, R.E., and Maldonado, E.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-130213-6
- Date
- 2013
- Source
- BMC research notes 6: 39 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Maldonado, Ernesto
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Base Sequence
- DNA Primers
- Gene Duplication
- Mutagenesis, Insertional*
- Phenotype
- Phylogeny
- Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Vacuolar Proton-Translocating ATPases/genetics*
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- PubMed
- 23375000 Full text @ BMC Res. Notes
Background
The V-ATPase is a proton pump that creates an acidic medium, necessary for lysosome function and vesicular traffic. It is also essential for several developmental processes. Many enzymes, like the V-ATPase, are assemblies of multiple subunits, in which each one performs a specific function required to achieve full activity. In the zebrafish V-ATPase 15 different subunits form this multimeric complex and mutations in any of these subunits induce hypopigmentation or pigment dilution phenotype. We have previously found variability in the pigment dilution phenotype among five of the V-ATPase zebrafish mutants. This work presents additional information about such differences and is an update from a previous report. Findings: We describe the variable phenotype severity observed among zebrafish V-ATPase pigment dilution mutants studying mRNA expression levels from their corresponding genes. At the same time we carried out phylogenetic analysis for this genes.
Conclusions
Based in the similarities between different pigment dilution mutants we suggest that there is an essential role for V-ATPases in melanosome biogenesis and melanocyte survival. Neither variable expression levels for the different V-ATPase subunits studied here or the presence of duplicated genes seems to account for the variable phenotype severity from this group of mutants. We believe there are some similarities between the pigment dilution phenotype from zebrafish V-ATPase insertional mutants and pigment mutants obtained in a chemical screening ("Tubingen mutants"). As for most of these "Tubingen mutants" the mutated gene has not been found we suggest that mutations in V-ATPase genes may be inducing their defects.