Notch signaling is required for arterial-venous differentiation during embryonic vascular development

Recent evidence indicates that acquisition of artery or vein identity during vascular development is governed, in part, by genetic mechanisms. The artery-specific expression of a number of Notch signaling genes in mouse and zebrafish suggests that this pathway may play a role in arterial-venous cell fate determination during vascular development. We show that loss of Notch signaling in zebrafish embryos leads to molecular defects in arterial-venous differentiation, including loss of artery-specific markers and ectopic expression of venous markers within the dorsal aorta. Conversely, we find that ectopic activation of Notch signaling leads to repression of venous cell fate. Finally, embryos lacking Notch function exhibit defects in blood vessel formation similar to those associated with improper arterial-venous specification. Our results suggest that Notch signaling is required for the proper development of arterial and venous blood vessels, and that a major role of Notch signaling in blood vessels is to repress venous differentiation within developing arteries.

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Expression of proneural and neurogenic genes in the zebrafish lateral line primordium correlates with selection of hair cell fate in neuromasts

Expression of a mouse atonal homologue, math1, defines cells with the potential to become sensory hair cells in the mouse inner ear (Science 284 (1999) 1837) and Notch signaling limits the number of cells that are permitted to adopt this fate (Nat. Genet. 21 (1999) 289; J. Neurocytol. 28 (1999) 809). Failure of lateral inhibition mediated by Notch signaling is associated with an overproduction of ear hair cells in the zebrafish mind bomb (mib) and deltaA mutants (Development 125 (1998a) 4637; Development 126 (1999) 5669), suggesting a similar role for these genes in limiting the number of hair cells in the zebrafish ear. This study extends the analysis of proneural and neurogenic gene expression to the lateral line system, which detects movement via clusters of related sensory hair cells in specialized structures called neuromasts. We have compared the expression of a zebrafish atonal homologue, zath1, and neurogenic genes, deltaA, deltaB and notch3, in neuromasts and the posterior lateral line primordium (PLLP) of wild-type and mib mutant embryos. We describe progressive restriction of proneural and neurogenic gene expression in the migrating PLLP that appears to correlate with selection of hair cell fate in maturing neuromasts. In mib mutants there is a failure to restrict expression of zath1 and Delta homologues in the neuromasts revealing similarities with the phenotype previously described in the ear.

Analysis of upstream elements in the HuC promoter leads to the establishment of transgenic zebrafish with fluorescent neurons

HuC encodes an RNA binding protein homologous to Drosophila elav that serves as an excellent early marker for differentiating neurons. We have characterized the promoter of the zebrafish HuC gene by examining the ability of 5'-upstream fragments to drive expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) in live embryos. We determined that 2.8 kb of the 5'-flanking sequence is sufficient to restrict GFP gene expression to neurons. The core promoter spans 251 base pairs and contains a CCAAT box and one SP1 sequence but no TATA box is present near the transcription start site. A putative MyT1 binding site and at least 17 E-box sequences are necessary to maintain the neuronal specificity of HuC expression. Interestingly, sequential removal of the putative MyT1 binding site and 14 distal E boxes does not appear to abolish neuronal expression; rather, it leads to a progressive expansion of GFP expression into muscle cells. Further removal of the three proximal E boxes eliminates neuronal and muscle specificity of GFP expression and leads to ubiquitous expression of GFP in the whole body. Identification of key components of the HuC promoter has led to the establishment of a stable zebrafish transgenic line (HuC-GFP) in which GFP is expressed specifically in neurons. We crossed mind bomb (mib) fish with this line to visualize their neurogenic phenotype in live mib(-/-) mutant embryos. This cross illustrates how HuC-GFP fish could be used in the future to identify and analyze zebrafish mutants with an aberrant pattern of early neurons.

Repressor activity of Headless/Tcf3 is essential for vertebrate head formation

The vertebrate organizer can induce a complete body axis when transplanted to the ventral side of a host embryo by virtue of its distinct head and trunk inducing properties. Wingless/Wnt antagonists secreted by the organizer have been identified as head inducers. Their ectopic expression can promote head formation, whereas ectopic activation of Wnt signalling during early gastrulation blocks head formation. These observations suggest that the ability of head inducers to inhibit Wnt signalling during formation of anterior structures is what distinguishes them from trunk inducers that permit the operation of posteriorizing Wnt signals. Here we describe the zebrafish headless (hdl) mutant and show that its severe head defects are due to a mutation in T-cell factor-3 (Tcf3), a member of the Tcf/Lef family. Loss of Tcf3 function in the hdl mutant reveals that hdl represses Wnt target genes. We provide genetic evidence that a component of the Wnt signalling pathway is essential in vertebrate head formation and patterning.

Zebrafish narrowminded suggests a genetic link between formation of neural crest and primary sensory neurons

In the developing vertebrate nervous system, both neural crest and sensory neurons form at the boundary between non-neural ectoderm and the neural plate. From an in situ hybridization based expression analysis screen, we have identified a novel zebrafish mutation, narrowminded (nrd), which reduces the number of early neural crest cells and eliminates Rohon-Beard (RB) sensory neurons. Mosaic analysis has shown that the mutation acts cell autonomously suggesting that nrd is involved in either the reception or interpretation of signals at the lateral neural plate boundary. Characterization of the mutant phenotype indicates that nrd is required for a primary wave of neural crest cell formation during which progenitors generate both RB sensory neurons and neural crest cells. Moreover, the early deficit in neural crest cells in nrd homozygotes is compensated later in development. Thus, we propose that a later wave can compensate for the loss of early neural crest cells but, interestingly, not the RB sensory neurons. We discuss the implications of these findings for the possibility that RB sensory neurons and neural crest cells share a common evolutionary origin.

Mutations in the zebrafish unmask shared regulatory pathways controlling the development of catecholaminergic neurons

The mechanism by which pluripotent progenitors give rise to distinct classes of mature neurons in vertebrates is not well understood. To address this issue we undertook a genetic screen for mutations which affect the commitment and differentiation of catecholaminergic (CA) [dopaminergic (DA), noradrenergic (NA), and adrenergic] neurons in the zebrafish, Danio rerio. The identified mutations constitute five complementation groups. motionless and foggy affect the number and differentiation state of hypothalamic DA, telencephalic DA, retinal DA, locus coeruleus (LC) NA, and sympathetic NA neurons. The too few mutation leads to a specific reduction in the number of hypothalamic DA neurons. no soul lacks arch-associated NA cells and has defects in pharyngeal arches, and soulless lacks both arch-associated and LC cell groups. Our analyses suggest that the genes defined by these mutations regulate different steps in the differentiation of multipotent CA progenitors. They further reveal an underlying universal mechanism for the control of CA cell fates, which involve combinatorial usage of regulatory genes.

Control of neurogenesis--lessons from frogs, fish and flies

Two types of genes activated by neural inducers have been identified, those that lead to the activation of proneural genes and those that limit the activity of these genes to specific domains in the neural plate. The analysis of these genes has begun to fill gaps in our understanding of events that lead from neural induction to the generation of neurons within three longitudinal columns in the Xenopus and zebrafish neural plate.

A specific brain tract guides follower growth cones in two regions of the zebrafish brain

Neurons of the nucleus of the posterior commissure (nuc PC), an identifiable cluster of neurons in the embryonic zebrafish brain, project growth cones ventrally along the posterior commissure to the anterior tegmentum where the PC intersects two longitudinal tracts, the tract of the postoptic commissure (TPOC) and the medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF). Once at the intersection, nuc PC growth cones turn posteriorly onto the TPOC in the dorsal tegmentum and follow it to the hindbrain. Previously we showed that in the absence of the TPOC, nuc PC growth cones often extended along aberrant pathways suggesting that fasciculation, that is, contact with TPOC axons is an important factor in guiding growth cones along their normal pathway. However, a significant number of nuc PC growth cones also followed their normal pathway suggesting that cues associated with the dorsolateral tegmentum, independent of the TPOC, can also guide nuc PC growth cones. We have now confirmed using electron microscopy that nuc PC growth cones fasciculate with axons in the TPOC. In the absence of the TPOC, the nuc PC growth cones that extend along their normal pathway do so in contact with dorsolateral neuroepithelial cells. This suggests that cues associated with these cells can also guide the nuc PC growth cones. Furthermore, in the absence of the TPOC axons, these growth cones now inappropriately turn onto axons that normally intersect the TPOC near the border of the midbrain and hindbrain, that is, at a second intersection of tracts. This suggests that fasciculation with TPOC axons may also guide nuc PC growth cones in this second region of the brain.

Elimination of a brain tract increases errors in pathfinding by follower growth cones in the zebrafish embryo

The early zebrafish brain contains a simple axon scaffold of longitudinal tracts connected by commissures. Neurons in the nucleus of the posterior commissure (nuc PC) project growth cones along a specific route in this axonal scaffold, raising the possibility that specific axons in the early scaffold guide nuc PC growth cones. We tested this possibility by analyzing the behavior of nuc PC growth cones in embryos in which a portion of the scaffold, normally traversed by nuc PC growth cones, was surgically prevented from forming. Under these conditions nuc PC growth cones extended along both normal and aberrant pathways. This suggests that specific axons do provide guidance cues, since their removal leads to errors. However, these cues are not obligatory, since some growth cones still followed normal pathways.

Identification of spinal neurons in the embryonic and larval zebrafish

Previous studies indicated that the developing fish spinal cord was a simple system containing a small number of distinguishable neuronal cell types (Eisen et al., Nature 320:269-271, '86; Kuwada, Science, 233:740-746, '86). To verify this we have characterized the cellular anatomy of the spinal cord of developing zebrafish in order to determine the number, identities, and organization of the spinal neurons. Spinal neurons were labeled by intracellular dye injections, application of an axonal tracer dye to all or subsets of the axonal tracts, and application of antibodies which recognize embryonic neurons. We found that nine classes of neurons could be identified based on soma size and position, pattern of dendrites, axonal trajectory, and time of axonogenesis. These are two classes of axial motor neurons, which have been previously characterized (Myers, J. Comp. Neurol. 236:555-561, '85), one class of sensory neurons, and six classes of interneurons. One of the interneuron classes could be subclassified as primary and secondary based on criteria similar to those used to classify the axial motor neurons into primary and secondary classes. The early cord (18-20 hours) is an extremely simple system and contains approximately 18 lateral cell bodies per hemisegment, which presumably are post-mitotic cells. By this stage, five of the neuronal classes have begun axonogenesis including the primary motor neurons, sensory neurons, and three classes of interneurons. By concentrating on these early stages when the cord is at its simplest, pathfinding by growth cones of known identities can be described in detail. Then it should be possible to test many different mechanisms which may guide growth cones in the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS).

Axonogenesis in the brain of zebrafish embryos

We analyzed the pattern and development of the earliest tracts and followed pathfinding by the growth cones of an identified cluster of neurons in the brain of zebrafish embryos. Neurons were labeled with an antibody which labels many embryonic neurons, a lipophilic axonal tracer dye, and intracellular dye injections. The embryonic brain is extremely simple, and at 28 hr of development, the forebrain and midbrain consist of 8 main axonal tracts which are arranged as a set of longitudinal tracts connected by commissures. Each tract is established by identified clusters of approximately 2-12 neurons found in discrete regions of the brain. Many identified clusters of neurons project axons in a defined direction appropriate for the cluster and have axons with stereotyped trajectories, suggesting that their growth cones follow cell-specific routes. This was confirmed with intracellular dye injections for neurons of the nucleus of the posterior commissure. The growth cones of these neurons arrive at a site in the anterior tegmentum where 4 tracts meet. At this site, they could, in principle, turn in a number of directions but always extend posteriorly into one of the tracts. The pattern of pathfinding by these growth cones suggests the testable hypothesis that the growth cones of identified clusters of neurons establish the simple set of early tracts by selecting cluster-specific pathways at such intersections in order to reach their targets in the brain.

Pathfinding by identified growth cones in the spinal cord of zebrafish embryos

The spinal cord of early (18-20 hr) zebrafish embryos consists of a small number of neurons per hemisegment. The earliest neurons are identified and project growth cones that follow stereotyped, cell-specific pathways to reach their termination sites. We have studied the pathways taken by 4 of the early neurons in order to delineate the cells and structures their growth cones encounter during pathfinding. These neurons are 3 classes of commissural neurons (CoPA, CoSA, and CoB), which have contralateral longitudinal axons, and the VeLD neuron, which has an ipsilateral longitudinal axon. These growth cones encounter a defined set of cells and structures. Commissural growth cones appear to bypass the longitudinal axons of several identified neurons, including those from contralateral commissural neurons they encounter immediately following projection from the cell bodies. In contrast, these growth cones appear to extend in association with the longitudinal axons of commissural cells after crossing the ventral midline. Another set of cells of interest are the floor plate cells, a row of cells that constitute the ventral floor of the cord. At the floor plate growth cones exhibit cell-specific behaviors which may be influenced by the floor plate. (1) The floor plate may attract specific growth cones. The CoPA, CoSA, CoB, and VeLD growth cones all extend to the floor plate while other identified growth cones do not. (2) The floor plate may mediate cell-specific turns and induce some growth cones to cross the midline while inhibiting others from doing so. The commissural growth cones extend directly under the floor plate to cross the midline and turn anterior (CoPA and CoSA) or bifurcate (CoB); the VeLD growth cone turns away from the midline and extends posteriorly. (3) The floor plate may mediate changes in the substrate affinities of growth cones. Commissural growth cones bypass longitudinal pathways before they have encountered the floor plate, but not after. The description of pathfinding by these growth cones suggests that some elements in their environment are ignored while others are not. Most interestingly, a single structure (the floor plate) may mediate multiple, cell-specific effects on spinal growth cones.