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Updated: May 20, 2026
Microbead Implantation in the Zebrafish Embryo
Published on: July 30, 2015
Progesterone and adipoQ receptor 11 links ras signaling to cardiac development in zebrafish
Heng Huang1, Ting Jin, Jing He
1Key Laboratory of Nutrition and Metabolism, Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
Objective:
Progesterone and adipoQ receptor (PAQR) 10 and PAQR11 are 2 highly homologous genes involved in compartmentalized Ras signaling in the Golgi apparatus. The aim of this study was to investigate the physiological functions of PAQR10 and PAQR11.
Methods And Results:
We used zebrafish as a model system to analyze the potential function of PAQR10/PAQR11. The expression profiles of PAQR10 and PAQR11 in zebrafish embryos are overlapping in many areas, but only PAQR11 is expressed in the developing heart. Knockdown of PAQR11 but not PAQR10 in zebrafish embryos causes cardiac developmental defects, including dilation of cardiac chambers, abnormal heart looping, disruption of atrioventricular cushion formation, heart edema, and blood regurgitation. PAQR11 knockdown markedly reduces the number and proliferation rate of cardiomyocytes and alters the morphology of myocardial cells during early heart development. The cardiac defects caused by PAQR11 knockdown can be phenocopied by MEK inhibitors and a dominant negative Ras. Furthermore, constitutively active Ras and especially a Golgi-localized but not a plasma membrane-localized Ras are able to rescue the cardiac defects caused by PAQR11 knockdown.
Conclusions:
This study not only provides in vivo evidence that PAQR11 plays a critical role in heart morphogenesis but also pinpoints the importance of compartmentalized Ras signaling during development.
