Visualization of rod photoreceptor development using GFP-transgenic zebrafish

✍ Scribed by Takanori Hamaoka; Masaki Takechi; Akito Chinen; Yuko Nishiwaki; Shoji Kawamura

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 776 KB
• Volume: 34
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1526-954X
• DOI: 10.1002/gene.10155

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Summary: Zebrafish retina contains five morphologically distinct classes of photoreceptors, each expressing a distinct type of opsin gene. Molecular mechanisms underlying specification of opsin expression and differentiation among the cell types are largely unknown. This is partly because mutants affected with expression of a particular class of opsin gene are difficult to find. In this study we established the transgenic lines of zebrafish carrying green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene under the 1.1‐kb and 3.7‐kb upstream regions of the rod‐opsin gene. In transgenic fish, GFP expression initiated and proceeded in the same spatiotemporal pattern with rod‐opsin gene. The retinal section from adult transgenic fish showed GFP expression throughout the rod cell layer. These results indicate that the proximal 1.1‐kb region is sufficient to drive gene expression in all rod photoreceptor cells. These transgenic fish should facilitate screening of mutants affected specifically with rod‐opsin expression or rod cell development by visualization of rod cells by GFP. genesis 34:215–220, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.