PUBLICATION
Neuron navigator 3 (NAV3) is required for heart development in zebrafish
- Authors
- Lv, F., Ge, X., Qian, P., Lu, X., Liu, D., Chen, C.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-220119-2
- Date
- 2022
- Source
- Fish physiology and biochemistry 48(1): 173-183 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Liu, Dong
- Keywords
- CRISPR/Cas9, Cardiac defects, Cardiogenesis, In situ hybridization, Zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
- Heart/growth & development*
- Nerve Tissue Proteins*/genetics
- Nerve Tissue Proteins*/physiology
- Zebrafish*/genetics
- Zebrafish*/growth & development
- Zebrafish Proteins*/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins*/physiology
- PubMed
- 35039994 Full text @ Fish Physiol. Biochem.
Citation
Lv, F., Ge, X., Qian, P., Lu, X., Liu, D., Chen, C. (2022) Neuron navigator 3 (NAV3) is required for heart development in zebrafish. Fish physiology and biochemistry. 48(1):173-183.
Abstract
As a tightly controlled biological process, cardiogenesis requires the specification and migration of a suite of cell types to form a particular three-dimensional configuration of the heart. Many genetic factors are involved in the formation and maturation of the heart, and any genetic mutations may result in severe cardiac failures. The neuron navigator (NAV) family consists of three vertebrate homologs (NAV1, NAV2, and NAV3) of the neural guidance molecule uncoordinated-53 (UNC-53) in Caenorhabditis elegans. Although they are recognized as neural regulators, their expressions are also detected in many organs, including the heart, kidney, and liver. However, the functions of NAVs, regardless of neural guidance, remain largely unexplored. In our study, we found that nav3 gene was expressed in the cardiac region of zebrafish embryos from 24 to 48 h post-fertilization (hpf) by means of in situ hybridization (ISH) assay. A CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing method was utilized to delete the nav3 gene in zebrafish and loss of function of Nav3 resulted in a severe deficiency in its cardiac morphology and structure. The similar phenotypic defects of the knockout mutants could recur by nav3 morpholino injection and be rescued by nav3 mRNA injection. Dual-color fluorescence imaging of ventricle and atrium markers further confirmed the disruption of the heart development in nav3-deleted mutants. Although the heart rate was not affected by the deletion of nav3, the heartbeat intensity was decreased in the mutants. All these findings indicate that Nav3 was required for cardiogenesis in developing zebrafish embryos.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping