DNA template strand segregation in developing zebrafish
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Updated: Oct 18, 2025
Profiling DNA Replication Timing Using Zebrafish as an In Vivo Model System
Published on: April 30, 2018
Stella M K Glasauer1, Therese Triemer2, Anne B Neef2
1Department of Chemistry, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Research Institute and Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA 93106, USA.
Abstract:
Asymmetric inheritance of sister chromatids has long been predicted to be linked to discordant fates of daughter cells and even hypothesized to minimize accumulation of mutations in stem cells. Here, we use (2'S)-2'-deoxy-2'-fluoro-5-ethynyluridine (F-ara-EdU), bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), and light sheet microscopy to track embryonic DNA in whole zebrafish. Larval development results in rapid depletion of older DNA template strands from stem cell niches in the retina, brain, and intestine. Prolonged label retention occurs in quiescent progenitors that resume replication in later development. High-resolution microscopy reveals no evidence of asymmetric template strand segregation in >100 daughter cell pairs, making it improbable that asymmetric DNA segregation prevents mutational burden according to the immortal strand hypothesis in developing zebrafish.
