title: Embryogenic staging of fugu, Takifugu rubripes, and expression profiles of aldh1a2, aldh1a3 and cyp26a1.
abstract: Fugu (Takifugu rubripes) has contributed as an ideal model organism for understanding the structure and evolution of vertebrate genomes, but also has potential as a good model organism for developmental biology because of the availability of the genome information. However, there is no comprehensive report describing the developmental stages, which is fundamental data for developmental biology. Here we describe a series of stages of the embryonic development of fugu during the first 8 days after fertilization, i.e. from fertilization to hatching. We define seven periods of embryogenesis - the zygote, cleavage, blastula, gastrula, segmentation, pharyngula, and hatching periods. Stages subdividing these periods are defined based on morphological characteristics. In addition, as a model experiment of gene expression analysis using this staging series, we performed in situ hybridization of aldh1a2, aldh1a3 and cyp26a1 that play regulatory roles in retinoic acid (RA) metabolism essential for embryogenesis. This report provides fundamental information on fugu embryogenesis, which is anticipated to facilitate the use of fugu as a model organism for developmental studies.
authors.affiliation: National Research Institute of Aquaculture, Farming Biology Division, Fisheries Research Agency (FRA), 422-1, Minamiise, Watarai, Mie 516-0193, Japan.
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uji
authors.forename: Tadahide
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kurokawa
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Tohru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kasuya
authors.forename: Tohru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000080924:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 1 Family; D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / Q000378:metabolism*; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000502:physiology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000502:physiology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D008853:Microscopy; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D050697:Retinal Dehydrogenase / Q000378:metabolism*; D000072516:Retinoic Acid 4-Hydroxylase; D023741:Takifugu / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D007527:Isoenzymes; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System; D000072516:Retinoic Acid 4-Hydroxylase; D000080924:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 1 Family; D050697:Retinal Dehydrogenase