Gene expression profile of a selection of Polycomb Group genes during zebrafish embryonic and germ line development

PLoS One. 2018 Jul 9;13(7):e0200316. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200316. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Polycomb Group (PcG) genes are transcriptional repressors that are described to be important during development and differentiation. There is significant interest in PcGs proteins because of their role in stem cell biology and tumorigenesis. In this study we characterize the expression of a selection of PcG genes in the adult germline of zebrafish and during embryogenesis. In adults, expression of selected PcG genes is found to be enriched in germ line over somatic tissues. Therefore, the germ line of adult zebrafish was analyzed for the expression pattern of a selection of PcG genes by whole mount in situ hybridization. We detected presence of the tested PcG gene transcripts at early stages of both oogenesis and spermatogenesis. This enriched expression for early stages of gametogenesis is also observed in developing gonads at 4 and 5 weeks post fertilization. Additionally, zebrafish embryos were used to study the spatio-temporal expression patterns of a selection of PcG genes during development. The PcG genes that we tested are maternally loaded and ubiquitously expressed at early developmental stages, except of ezh1. The expression of the PcG genes that were assessed becomes enriched anteriorly and is more defined during tissue specification. The data shown here is an important resource for functional PcG gene studies in vivo.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Differentiation / genetics*
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian
  • Embryonic Development / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
  • Germ Cells
  • Polycomb-Group Proteins / genetics*
  • Transcriptome*
  • Zebrafish / embryology
  • Zebrafish / genetics*

Substances

  • Polycomb-Group Proteins

Grants and funding

The work was funded by the Innovative Research Scheme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (www.nwo.nl, NWO-Veni 916.96.021, NWO-Vidi 864.12.009, NWO-Meervoud 836.13.003, L.M.K.), the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre tenure track fellowship (www.radboudumc.nl, L.M.K.), and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 705939 (K.A.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.