title: A vasa-like gene in zebrafish identifies putative primordial germ cells.
abstract: The vasa gene is essential for germline formation in Drosophila. Vasa-related genes have been isolated from several organisms including nematode, frog and mammals. In order to gain insight into the early events in vertebrate germline development, zebrafish was chosen as a model. Two zebrafish vasa-related genes were isolated, pl10a and vlg. The pl10a gene was shown to be widely expressed during embryogenesis. The vlg gene and vasa belong to the same subfamily of RNA helicase encoding genes. Putative maternal vlg transcripts were detected shortly after fertilization and from the blastula stage onwards, expression was restricted to migratory cells most likely to be primordial germ cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Bergen, Norway. Lisbeth.Olsen@mbi.uib.no
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aasland
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fjose
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020365:RNA Helicases; D012316:RNA Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000072260:RNA Splicing Factors; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D000072260:RNA Splicing Factors; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins; D012316:RNA Nucleotidyltransferases; C519855:SART3 protein, zebrafish; C498289:ddx4 protein, zebrafish; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D020365:RNA Helicases