title: The endoderm indirectly influences morphogenetic movements of the zebrafish head kidney through the posterior cardinal vein and VegfC.
abstract: Integration of blood vessels and organ primordia determines organ shape and function. The head kidney in the zebrafish interacts with the dorsal aorta (DA) and the posterior cardinal vein (PCV) to achieve glomerular filtration and definitive hematopoiesis, respectively. How the head kidney co-develops with both the axial artery and vein remains unclear. We found that in endodermless sox32-deficient embryos, the head kidney associated with the PCV but not the DA. Disrupted convergent migration of the PCV and the head kidney in sox32-deficient embryos was rescued in a highly coordinated fashion through the restoration of endodermal cells. Moreover, grafted endodermal cells abutted the host PCV endothelium in the transplantation assay. Interestingly, the severely-disrupted head kidney convergence in the sox32-deficient embryo was suppressed by both the cloche mutation and the knockdown of endothelial genes, indicating that an interaction between the endoderm and the PCV restricts the migration of the head kidney. Furthermore, knockdown of either vegfC or its receptor vegfr3 suppressed the head kidney convergence defect in endodermless embryos and perturbed the head kidney-PCV association in wild-type embryos. Our findings thus underscore a role for PCV and VegfC in patterning the head kidney prior to organ assembly and function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chih-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsiao-Chu
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Genomic Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: May-Su
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: You
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D004707:Endoderm / Q000196:embryology*; D060226:Head Kidney / Q000196:embryology*; D042582:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C / Q000378:metabolism*; D014680:Veins / Q000196:embryology*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology*; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D042582:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins; C493178:vascular endothelial growth factor C, zebrafish