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The zebrafish progranulin gene family and antisense transcripts
Benoît Cadieux1, Babykumari P Chitramuthu, David Baranowski
1Endocrine Laboratory, Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. bcadieux@cc.ucsf.edu
BMC Genomics
|November 10, 2005
Summary
Zebrafish possess four progranulin (grn) genes, with grna and grnb expression patterns mirroring mammalian progranulin functions during development. This suggests ancestral gene functions have diversified across these four zebrafish paralogues.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Developmental Biology
- Comparative Biology
Background:
- Progranulin (PGRN) is a growth factor involved in development, wound healing, and cancer.
- Mammalian PGRN is encoded by a single gene, but zebrafish may have multiple PGRN genes due to a genome duplication event.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize the progranulin (grn) genes in zebrafish.
- To investigate the expression patterns of zebrafish grn genes during development.
- To determine the orthologue of mammalian PGRN in zebrafish.
Main Methods:
- cDNA and gene cloning and sequencing.
- RT-PCR and whole-mount in situ hybridization.
- Chromosomal localization analysis.
Main Results:
- Identified four zebrafish grn genes: grna, grnb, grn1, and grn2, with varying granulin motif copies.
- grna and grnb expression patterns during development resemble those of mouse PGRN.
- Syntenic conservation suggests grna is the mammalian PGRN orthologue.
Conclusions:
- Zebrafish grn gene evolution involved duplication and partitioning of ancestral functions.
- grna and grnb appear to have retained key developmental roles of ancestral PGRN.
- The four zebrafish grn paralogues collectively represent the functions of the ancestral grn gene.