Zebrafish fgf10b has a complementary function to fgf10a in liver and pancreas development

Fgf10 is a critical growth factor in mammals for development of endodermal organs such as the liver, pancreas, lung, and gut. Due to whole genome duplication, the zebrafish has two fgf10 orthologs, fgf10a and fgf10b. While fgf10a has a role in development of the esophagus and swimbladder, we found in the present study that fgf10b had a complementary expression pattern in the liver, pancreas, and gut. Morpholino knockdown of Fgf10b further confirmed its essential role in the normal development of liver and pancreas. Thus, our data provide another example of functional partition of two duplicated othologous genes during evolution.