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Updated: Dec 31, 2025
Visualizing the Developing Brain in Living Zebrafish using Brainbow and Time-lapse Confocal Imaging
Published on: March 23, 2020
Patterns of spon1b:GFP expression during early zebrafish brain development
Nathalie Agudelo-Dueñas1,2, Manu Forero-Shelton1, Irina V Zhdanova3
1Biophysics Group, Department of Physics, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Objective:
F-spondin is part of a group of evolutionarily conserved extracellular matrix proteins in vertebrates. It is highly expressed in the embryonic floor plate, and it can bind to the ECM and promote neuronal outgrowth. A characterization of F-spondin expression patterns in the adult zebrafish brain was previously reported by our group. However, given its importance during development, we aimed to obtain a detailed description of green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression driven by the spon1b promotor, in the developing zebrafish brain of the transgenic Tg(spon1b:GFP) line, using light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM).
Results:
Images obtained in live embryos from 22 to 96 h post fertilization confirmed our earlier reports on the presence of spon1b:GFP expressing cells in the telencephalon and diencephalon (olfactory bulbs, habenula, optic tectum, nuclei of the medial longitudinal fasciculus), and revealed new spon1b:GFP populations in the pituitary anlage, dorso-rostral cluster, and ventro-rostral cluster. LSFM made it possible to follow the dynamics of cellular migration patterns during development.
Conclusions:
spon1b:GFP larval expression patterns starts in early development in specific neuronal structures of the developing brain associated with sensory-motor modulation. LSFM evaluation of the transgenic Tg(spon1b:GFP) line provides an effective approach to characterize GFP expression patterns in vivo.
