Misty somites, a maternal effect gene identified by transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis in zebrafish that is essential for the somite boundary maintenance.

ABSTRACT: Somite boundary formation is crucial for segmentation of vertebrate somites and vertebrae and skeletal muscle morphogenesis. Previously, we developed a Tol2 transposon-mediated gene trap method in zebrafish. In the present study, we aimed to isolate transposon insertions that trap maternally-expressed genes. We found that homozygous female fish carrying a transposon insertion within a maternally-expressed gene misty somites (mys) produced embryos that showed obscure somite boundaries at the early segmentation stage (12-13 hpf). The somite boundaries became clear and distinct after this period and the embryos survived to adulthood. This phenotype was rescued by expression of mys cDNA in the homozygous adults, confirming that it was caused by a decreased mys activity. We analyzed a role of t

SUBMITTER: Kotani T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2443191 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature