Alk and Ltk ligands are essential for iridophore development in zebrafish mediated by the receptor tyrosine kinase Ltk.

ABSTRACT: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (Alk) and leucocyte tyrosine kinase (Ltk) were identified as "orphan" receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) with oncogenic potential. Recently ALKAL1 and ALKAL2 (also named "augmentor-β" and "augmentor-α" or "FAM150A" and "FAM150B," respectively) were discovered as physiological ligands of Alk and Ltk. Here, we employ zebrafish as a model system to explore the physiological function and to characterize in vivo links between Alk and Ltk with their ligands. Unlike the two ligands encoded by mammalian genomes, the zebrafish genome contains three genes: aug-α1, aug-α2, and aug-β Our experiments demonstrate that these ligands play an important role in zebrafish pigment development. Deficiency in aug-α1, aug-α2, and aug-β results in

SUBMITTER: Mo ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5692561 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature