Class III POU genes of zebrafish are predominantly expressed in the central nervous system

POU genes encode a family of transcription factors involved in a wide variety of cell fate decisions and in the regulation of differentiation pathways. We have searched for POU genes in the zebrafish, a popular model organism for the study of early development of vertebrates. Besides five putative pseudogenes we have identified five POU genes that are expressed during embryogenesis. Probes obtained by PCR were used to isolate full-length cDNAs. Four of the isolated genes encode proteins with class III POU domains. Analysis of genomic clones suggests that the fish genes in general do not contain introns, similar to class III genes of mammals. However, the C-termini of two of the encoded proteins vary due to facultative splicing of a short intervening sequence. These two genes show very strong similarities in their sequence. They have probably arisen by gene duplication, possibly as part of a larger scale duplication of part of the zebrafish genome. Analysis of the expression of the class III genes shows that they are predominantly expressed in the central nervous system and that they may play important roles in patterning the embryonic brain.