Int. J. Dev. Biol. 51: 241 - 246 (2007)

https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.062220em

Vol 51, Issue 3

Zebrafish spata2 is expressed at early developmental stages

Developmental Expression Pattern | Published: 1 April 2007

Enrico Moro¹, Claudio Maran³, M. Liliana Slongo³, Francesco Argenton¹, Stefano Toppo² and Maurizio Onisto^3,*

¹Dept. of Biology, ²Dept. of Biological Chemistry and ³Dept. of Experimental Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Padova, Italy

Abstract

Spata2 (spermatogenesis-associated protein 2) was originally described as a novel gene involved in the spermatogenic process. In this study, we cloned a potential zebrafish spata2 orthologue. The consensus open reading frame (1650 bp) encodes a polypeptide of 550 amino acids which shares 37% identity with the human SPATA2. Bioinformatic analysis reveals a small pattern PW [KR] KE [YF][RK] which seems to be of particular interest in the light of its strong conservation between SPATA2 and the recently discovered TAMO protein of D. melanogaster. RT-PCR analysis in adult zebrafish tissues revealed that spata2 mRNA has a broad distribution. Whole-mount in situ hybridization demonstrated that spata2 transcripts are maternally derived and becomes strongly localized in the central nervous system at early developmental stages. From 5 dpf, spata2 expression becomes detectable in the gut and pronephric duct epithelium, suggesting a wide tissue function during vertebrate development.

Keywords

spata2, zebrafish (Danio rerio), whole-mount in situ hybridization