Atoh8, a bHLH transcription factor, is required for the development of retina and skeletal muscle in zebrafish.
BACKGROUND
Math6/atoh8, a bHLH transcription factor, is thought to be indispensable for early embryonic development and likely has important roles in vertebrate tissue-specific differentiation. However, the function of Atoh8 during early development is not clear because homozygous knockout causes embryonic lethality in mice. We have examined the effects of the atoh8 gene on the differentiation of retina and skeletal muscle during early development in zebrafish.


RESULTS
We isolated a Math6 homologue in zebrafish, designated as zebrafish atoh8. Whole -mount in situ hybridization analysis showed that zebrafish atoh8 is dynamically expressed mainly in developing retina and skeletal muscle. Atoh8-MO knock-down resulted in reduced eye size with disorganization of retinal lamination. The reduction of atoh8 function also affected the arrangement of paraxial cells and differentiated muscle fibers during somite morphogenesis.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results show that Atoh8 is an important regulator for the development of both the retina and skeletal muscles necessary for neural retinal cell and myogenic differentiation during zebrafish embryogenesis.
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Institute of Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. yaojh1@gmail.com
Jihua
J
Yao
Jingyao
J
Zhou
Qiaoling
Q
Liu
Daru
D
Lu
Lu
L
Wang
Xiaojing
X
Qiao
William
W
Jia
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000502:physiology*; D055786:Gene Knockout Techniques; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000196:embryology*; D012160:Retina / Q000196:embryology*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000235:genetics*
D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins