Identification and developmental expression pattern of van gogh-like 1, a second zebrafish strabismus homologue

Cell movement plays a central role in both normal embryogenesis and the development of diseases such as cancer. Therefore, identification and analysis of proteins controlling cell movement is of special importance. The zebrafish trilobite locus encodes a Van Gogh/Strabismus homologue, which regulates diverse cell migratory behaviors during embryogenesis. Trilobite is most similar to human Van Gogh-like 2 (VANGL2)/Strabismus 1 and mouse Loop-tail associated protein/Lpp1. Both human and mouse genomes encode a second Strabismus homologue referred to as VANGL1/Strabismus 2 and Lpp2, respectively. This prompted us to ask whether another van gogh/strabismus gene, one more closely related to human VANGL1, exists in the zebrafish genome. This paper describes the identification of zebrafish vangl1 and provides the first spatiotemporal expression and functional analysis of a vertebrate vangl1 homologue. Our data indicate that vangl1 and trilobite/vangl2 are expressed in largely non-overlapping domains during embryogenesis. Injection of synthetic vangl1 RNA partially suppressed the gastrulation defect in trilobite mutant embryos, suggesting that Vangl1 and Trilobite/Vangl2 have similar biochemical activities.