6th International Symposium on Genomics in Aquaculture, Granada (Spain) from May 4 to 6, 2022
Understanding the mechanism of bone mineralization and skeletal development is key to prevent skeletal deformities, which still represent one of the major problems in aquaculture. Our previous studies revealed that the novel Pth4 peptide was involved in bone metabolism through phosphate regulation. The pth4 gene is specifically expressed in two bilateral groups of neurons in the hypothalamic area of the zebrafish brain. To characterize the pth4 neurons and their role in bone metabolism, we performed a targeted cell ablation using a stable transgenic pth4 promoter-driven EGFP (pth4:EGFP) zebrafish line. This resulted in impaired mineralization and altered expression of phosphate regulation and osteoblast differentiation genes. To understand the basic biological properties of Pth4 neurons, we examined the transcriptome of adult zebrafish Pth4 neurons. EGFP-labeled Pth4 neurons were isolated from the brain of pth4:EGFP transgenic zebrafish. Four hundred Pth4 neurons (from 10 brains) were collected for each biological replicate using the FACS technique. RNA sequencing of two biological replicates was performed and analyzed. The pth4 neurons showed a transcriptional profile similar to that from other hypothalamic dopaminergic neurons. Our dataset provides an extensive resource for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying function of adult zebrafish Pth4 neurons. It also establishes a framework for the future characterization of genes expressed in Pth4 neurons and the study of Pth4 neuron evolution
This research was funded by the MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 grant numbers AGL2014-52473R and AGL2017-89648P to JR and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”