Elsevier

Gene Expression Patterns

Volume 3, Issue 4, August 2003, Pages 525-532
Gene Expression Patterns

Spatial and temporal expression patterns of selenoprotein genes during embryogenesis in zebrafish

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1567-133X(03)00054-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Selenium is important for embryogenesis in vertebrates but little is known about the expression patterns and biological functions of most selenoprotein genes. Taking advantage of the zebrafish model, systematic analysis of selenoprotein gene expression was performed by in situ hybridization on whole-mount embryos at different developmental stages. Twenty-one selenoprotein mRNAs were analyzed and all of them exhibited expression patterns restricted to specific tissues. Moreover, we demonstrated that highly similar selenoprotein paralogs were expressed within distinct territories. Therefore, tissue- and development-specific expression patterns provided new information for selenoproteins of unknown function.

Section snippets

Results and discussion

The trace element selenium is an essential nutrient of fundamental importance to human biology. This has become increasingly obvious, as new research has shown an unsuspected role for this element in areas important to human health. For instance, selenium deficiency leads to several pleiotropic defects in animals and humans, such as male infertility, mental development retardation, susceptibility to viral infections, increased cancer incidence and accelerated ageing (reviewed in Rayman, 2000).

Experimental procedure

Nucleotide sequences of cDNAs encoding zebrafish homologs of human selenoproteins were identified with a tBLASTn search at the NCBI zebrafish EST database. Oligonucleotides were deduced and partial cDNAs corresponding to GPxa and b, PHGPxa and b, SePW1, SePW2b, SePM, SePX/R, SePT1b, zSePT2 and SePH, were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from a kidney random cDNA library. ESTs corresponding to TrxR1, TrxR2, DIO1, DIO2, SePW2a and SePN were obtained from Incyte Genomics Inc.

Accession numbers

GPx, AY216589; PHGPxa, AY216590; PHGPxb, AY216591; TrxR1, AY221257; TrxR2, AY221258; Deio1, AY221259; Deio2, AY221260; SePPa, AF322071; SePPb, AF322072; SePW1, AY216582; SePW2a, AY221261; SePW2b, AY216583; SeP15, AY221263; SePM, AY216584; SePN, AY221262; SePR/X/MsrB, AY216585; SePT1a, AY221264; SePT1b, AY216586; SePT2, AY216588; SePH, AY216587; SPS2, AY221265.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to C. Allmang, M. Capovilla and L. Jaeger for comments on the manuscript. We thank V. Heyer and C. Loegler for excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by grants from the Ligue Régionale contre le Cancer and the Association pour la Recherche contre le Cancer to A.K., C.T. and B.T., by the NIH R01 RR15402 to C.T. and B.T. and in part by NIH GM61603, CA80946 and GM65204 to V.N.G.

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