Abstract
Recently, we cloned a photoreceptor-specific purpurin cDNA from axotomized goldfish retina. In the present study, we investigate the structure of zebrafish purpurin genomic DNA and its function during retinal development. First, we cloned a 3.7-kbp genomic DNA fragment including 1.4-kbp 5ʹ-flanking region and 2.3-kbp full-length coding region. In the 1.4-kbp 5ʹ-upstream region, there were some cone-rod homeobox (crx) protein binding motifs. The vector of the 1.4-kbp 5ʹ-flanking region combined with the reporter GFP gene showed specific expression of this gene only in the photoreceptors. Although the first appearance time of purpurin mRNA expression was a little bit later (40 hpf) than that of crx (17–24 hpf), the appearance site was identical to the ventral part of the retina. Next, we made purpurin or crx knock down embryos with morpholino antisense oligonucleotides. The both morphants (purpurin and crx) showed similar abnormal phenotypes in the eye development; small size of eyeball and lacking of retinal lamination. Furthermore, co-injection of crx morpholino and purpurin mRNA significantly rescued these abnormalities. These data strongly indicate that purpurin is a key molecule for the cell differentiation during early retinal development in zebrafish under transcriptional crx regulation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bally-cuif L, Boncinelli E (1997) Transcriptional factors and head formation in vertebrates. Bioessays 19:127–135
Carter DL, LaVail MM (1979) Rods and cones in the mouse retana. II. Autoradiographic analysis of cell generation using tritiated thymidine. J Comp Neurol 188:263–272
Chen S, Wang QL, Nie Z et al (1997) Crx, a novel Otx-like paired-homeodomain protein, binds to and transactivates photoreceptor cell-specific genes. Neuron 19:1017–1030
Freund CL, Gregory-Evans CY, Furukawa T et al (1997) Cone-rod dystrophy due to mutations in a novel photoreceptor-specific homeobox gene (CRX) essential for maintenance of the photoreceptors. Cell 91:543–553
Furukawa T, Morrow EM, Cepko CL (1997) Crx, a novel otx-like homeobox gene, shows photoreceptor-specific expression and regulates photoreceptor differentiation. Cell 91:531–541
Furukawa T, Morrow EM, Li T et al (1999) Retinopathy and attenuated circadian entrainment in Crx-deficient mice. Nat Genet 23:466–470
Kawamura S, Takeshita K, Tsujimura T et al (2005) Evolutionarily conserved and divergent regulatory sequences in the fish rod opsin promoter. Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol 141:391–399
Liu Y, Shen Y, Test JS et al (2001) Isolation and characterization of a zebrafish homologue of the cone rod homeoboxi gene. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 42:481–487
Livesey FJ, Furukawa T, Steffen MA et al (2000) Microarray analysis of the transcriptional network controlled by the photoreceptor homeobox gene Crx. Curr Biol 10:301–310
Matsukawa T, Sugitani K, Mawatari K et al (2004) Role of purpurin as a retinol-binding protein in goldfish retina during the early stage of optic nerve regeneration: its priming action on neurite outgrowth. J Neurosci 24:8346–8353
Pittler SJ, Zhang Y, Chen S et al (2004) Functional analysis of the rod photoreceptor cGMP phosphodiesterase alpha-subunit gene promoter: Nrl and Crx are required for full transcriptional activity. J Biol Chem 279:19800–19807
Royet J, Finkelstein R (1995) Pattern formation in Drosophila head development: the role of the orthodenticle homeobox gene. Development 121:3561–3572
Schubert D, LaCorbiere M (1985) Isolation of an adhesion-mediating protein from chick neural retina adherons. J Cell Biol 101:1071–1077
Schubert D, LaCorbiere M, Esch F (1986) A chick neural retina adhesion and survival molecule is a retinol-binding protein. J Cell Biol 102:2295–2301
Shen YC, Raymond PA (2004) Zebrafish cone-rod (crx) homeobox gene promotes retinogenesis. Dev Biol 269:237–251
Silva E, Yang JM, Li Y et al (2000) A CRX null mutation is associated with both Leber congenital amaurosis and a normal ocular phenotype. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 41:2076–2079
Sohocki MM, Sullivan LS, Mintz-Hittner HA et al (1998) A range of clinical phenotypes associated with mutations in CRX, a photoreceptor transcription-factor gene. Am J Hum Genet 63:1307–1315
Sugitani K, Matsukawa T, Koriyama Y et al (2006) Upregulation of retinal transglutaminase during the axonal elongation stage of goldfish optic nerve regeneration. Neuroscience 142:1081–1092
Tanaka M, Murayama D, Nagashima M et al (2007) Purpurin expression in the zebrafish retina during early development and after optic nerve lesion in adults. Brain Res 1153:34–42
Zhu X, Craft CM (2000) Modulation of CRX transactivation activity by phosducin isoforms. Mol Cell Biol 20:5216–5226
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nagashima, M. et al. (2010). A Hypoplastic Retinal Lamination in the Purpurin Knock Down Embryo in Zebrafish. In: Anderson, R., Hollyfield, J., LaVail, M. (eds) Retinal Degenerative Diseases. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 664. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1399-9_59
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1399-9_59
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1398-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1399-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)