title: Ziwi, the zebrafish homologue of the Drosophila piwi: co-localization with vasa at the embryonic genital ridge and gonad-specific expression in the adults.
abstract: PIWI regulates the proliferation and maintenance of germline stem cells in diverse organisms. The full-length 3.26 kb ziwi cDNA, the zebrafish homologue of piwi of Drosophila, encodes a putative protein of 858 amino acids. ZIWI is 65% homologous with the mouse and human PIWI, but only 38 and 33% with Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila PIWI, respectively. In adult zebrafish, ziwi is expressed exclusively in the gonads. In embryos and fry, its expression is detectable initially during segmentation and persisted for at least 4 weeks post hatching. During neurogenesis and organogenesis, its expression was detected in the CNS and fin buds. Starting from 24 hpf and later on, ziwi transcripts were found in the genital ridge.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore. dbstanch@nus.edu.sg
authors.forename: Cheong-Huat
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Thean-Chu
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Shyamal D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Weeraratne
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Korzh
authors.forename: Tit-Meng
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Zhiyuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gong
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D060565:Argonaute Proteins; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009928:Organ Specificity; D010053:Ovary / Q000378:metabolism*; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020365:RNA Helicases / Q000378:metabolism*; D034743:RNA-Induced Silencing Complex; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000235:genetics*; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D060565:Argonaute Proteins; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C530363:PRG-1 protein, C elegans; C530626:PRG-2 protein, C elegans; D011506:Proteins; D034743:RNA-Induced Silencing Complex; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins; C116498:piwi protein, Drosophila; C472855:piwil1 protein, zebrafish; C498289:ddx4 protein, zebrafish; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D020365:RNA Helicases