Developmental expression of the zebrafish Arf-like small GTPase paralogs arl13a and arl13b

Members of the Arf-like (Arl) family of small GTP-binding proteins regulate a number of cellular functions and play important roles in cilia structure and signaling. The small GTPase Arl13a is a close paralog to Arl13b, a small GTPase required for normal cilia formation that causes Joubert Syndrome when mutated. As mutation of arl13b causes a slow retinal degeneration in zebrafish (Song et al., 2016), we hypothesized that expression of arl13a may provide functional redundancy. We determined the expression domains of arl13a and arl13b during zebrafish development and examined subcellular localization by expression of fluorescence fusion proteins. Both genes are widely expressed during early cell division and gastrulation and Arl13a and Arl13b both localize to microtubules in ciliated and dividing cells of the early zebrafish embryo. Between 2 and 5 days post fertilization (dpf), arl13b is expressed in neural tissues while expression of arl13a is downregulated by 2 dpf and restricted to craniofacial structures. These results indicate that arl13a and arl13b have evolved different roles and that arl13a does not function in the zebrafish retina.