Expression of zebrafish rag genes during early development identifies the thymus

Recent experiments have demonstrated that zebrafish is a vertebrate in which it is possible to carry out large-scale mutagenic screens to identify genes involved in specific developmental pathways. To follow development of the immune system in zebrafish, we have analyzed the expression of the recombination activating genes, rag1 and rag2, which we have previously isolated and characterized. These genes catalyze the rearrangement of immunoglobulin genes in immature B lymphocytes and of T cell receptor genes in immature T lymphocytes and are therefore appropriate markers to follow the development of organs containing these cells. By whole-mount in situ hybridization, we detected expression of both rag genes in a paired organ in the head, beginning on the fourth day after fertilization. Histological examination of this organ indicated that it corresponds to the thymus, as described for other fish, an organ that has not previously been identified in zebrafish. By histological analysis, the thymus primordium appears at 54 hr but does not enlarge significantly until 30 hr later. The thymus continues to enlarge and reaches its mature histological organization at 1 month. The pronephros, the major hematopoietic organ in the adult fish, begins to develop hematopoietic tissue about 2 weeks after fertilization. By 1 month, mature lymphocytes are distinguishable in the tissue surrounding renal tubules. Lymphocytes appear in the kidney too late for screening by whole-mount in situ hybridization; however, the pattern of rag1 expression in the thymus forms the basis of an assay for mutations affecting development of the thymus or its constituent lymphocytes.