Temporal and spatial expression of tight junction genes during zebrafish pronephros development

The kidney is comprised of nephrons - epithelial tubes with specialized segments that reabsorb and secrete solutes, perform osmoregulation, and produce urine. Different nephron segments exhibit unique combinations of ion channels, transporter proteins, and cell junction proteins that govern permeability between neighboring cells. The zebrafish pronephros is a valuable model to study the mechanisms of vertebrate nephrogenesis, but many basic features of segment gene expression in renal progenitors and mature nephrons have not been characterized. Here, we analyzed the temporal and spatial expression pattern of tight junction components during zebrafish kidney ontogeny. During nephrogenesis, renal progenitors show discrete expression domains of claudin (cldn) 15a, cldn8, occludin (ocln) a, oclnb, tight junction protein (tjp) 2a, tjp2b, and tjp3. Interestingly, transcripts encoding these genes exhibit dynamic spatiotemporal domains during the time when pronephros segment domains are established. These data provide a useful gene expression map of cell junction components during zebrafish nephrogenesis. As such, this information complements the existing molecular map of nephron segment characteristics, and can be used to characterize kidney development mutants as well as various disease models, in addition to aiding in the elucidation of mechanisms governing epithelial regeneration after acute nephron injury.