PUBLICATION

NEFLb impairs early nervous system development via regulation of neuron apoptosis in zebrafish

Authors
Wang, S., Ji, D., Yang, Q., Li, M., Ma, Z., Zhang, S., Li, H.
ID
ZDB-PUB-181221-6
Date
2018
Source
Journal of Cellular Physiology   234(7): 11208-11218 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Li, Hongyan
Keywords
Danio rerio, apoptosis, nervous system, neuron, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Apoptosis/physiology
  • Axons/metabolism
  • Brain/embryology*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/genetics
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases/genetics
  • Neurofilament Proteins/genetics
  • Neurofilament Proteins/metabolism*
  • Neurogenesis/genetics
  • Spinal Cord/embryology*
  • Zebrafish/embryology*
PubMed
30569449 Full text @ J. Cell. Physiol.
Abstract
Neurofilament light chain (NEFL), a subunit of neurofilament, has been shown to play an important role in pathogenic neurodegenerative disease and in radial axonal growth. However, information remains largely lacking regarding the function of NEFL in early development to date. In this study, we demonstrated the presence of two nefl genes, nefla and neflb, in zebrafish, generated by fish-specific third round genome duplication. These duplicated nefl genes were predominantly expressed in the nervous system with an overlapping and distinct expression pattern. Both gene knockdown and rescue experiments show that it was neflb rather than nefla that played an indispensable role in nervous system development. It was also found that neflb knockdown resulted in striking apoptosis of the neurons in the brain and spinal cord, leading to morphological defects such as brain structure disorder and trunk bending. Thus, we report a previously uncharacterized role of NEFL that NEFLb impairs the early development of zebrafish nervous system via regulation of the neuron apoptosis in the brain and spinal cord.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping