The heterochronic genes lin-28a and lin-28b play an essential and evolutionarily conserved role in early zebrafish development.

ABSTRACT: The Caenorhabditis elegans heterochronic gene pathway, which consists of a set of regulatory genes, plays an important regulatory role in the timing of stage-specific cell lineage development in nematodes. Research into the heterochronic gene pathway gave rise to landmark microRNA (miRNA) studies and showed that these genes are important in stem cell and cancer biology; however, their functions in vertebrate development are largely unknown. To elucidate the function of the heterochronic gene pathway during vertebrate development, we cloned the zebrafish homologs of the C. elegans let-7 miRNA-binding protein, Lin-28, and analyzed their function in zebrafish development. The zebrafish genome contains two Lin28-related genes, lin-28a and lin-28b. Similar to mammalian Lin28 proteins, both zebr

SUBMITTER: Ouchi Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3916362 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature