ALBERT

Description: ABSTRACT Focal Adhesion Kinase is a non-receptor protein tyrosine kinase with signalling functions downstream of integrins and growth factor receptors. In addition to its role in adhesion, migration and proliferation it also has non-kinase scaffolding functions in the nucleus. FAK activation involves the following: (1) ligand bound growth factors or clustered integrins activate FAK kinase domain; (2) FAK autophosphorylates Tyrosine (Y) 397; (3) Src binds pY397 and phosphorylates FAK at various other sites including Y861; (4) downstream signalling of activated FAK elicits changes in cellular behaviour. Although many studies have demonstrated roles for the kinase domain, Y397 and Y861 sites in vitro much less is known about their functions in vivo . Here we report the generation of a series of FAK-mutant knockin mice where mutant FAK, either kinase dead (KD), non-phosphorylatable mutants Y397F and Y861F or mutant Y397E – containing a phosphomimetic site that results in a constitutive active Y397, can be expressed in a Cre inducible fashion driven by the ROSA26 promoter. In future studies, intercrossing these mice with FAKflox/flox mice and inducible cre-expressing mice will enable the in vivo study of mutant FAK function in the absence of endogenous FAK in a spatially and temporally regulated fashion within the whole organism. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Description: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a large and complex family of zinc-dependent endoproteinases widely recognized for their roles in remodeling the extracellular matrix (ECM) during embryonic development, wound healing, and tissue homeostasis. Their mis-regulation is central to many pathologies, and they have therefore been the focus of biomedical research for decades. These proteases have also recently emerged as mediators of neural development and synaptic plasticity in vertebrates, however understanding of the mechanistic basis of these roles, and the molecular identities of the MMPs involved remains far from complete. We have identified a zebrafish orthologue of mmp25 (a.k.a. leukolysin; MT6-MMP), a membrane-type, furin-activated MMP associated with leukocytes and invasive carcinomas, but which we find is expressed by a subset of the sensory neurons during normal embryonic development. We detect high levels of Mmp25β expression in the trigeminal, craniofacial, and posterior lateral line ganglia in the hindbrain, and in Rohon-Beard cells in the dorsal neural tube during the first 48 hours of embryonic development. Knockdown of Mmp25β expression with morpholino oligonucleotides results in larvae that are uncoordinated and insensitive to touch, and which exhibit defects in the development of sensory neural structures. Using in vivo zymography, we observe that Mmp25β morphant embryos show reduced type IV collagen degradation in regions of the head traversed by elongating axons emanating from the trigeminal ganglion, suggesting that Mmp25β may play a pivotal role in mediating ECM remodeling in the vicinity of these elongating axons. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Description: Summary: In mice, homozygous deletion of the cardiac sodium channel Scn5a results in defects in cardiac morphology and embryonic death before robust sodium current can be detected. In zebrafish, morpholino knockdown of cardiac sodium channel orthologs scn5Laa and scn5Lab perturbs specification of pre-cardiac mesoderm and inhibits growth of the embryonic heart. It is not known which developmental processes are perturbed by sodium channel knockdown and whether reduced cell number is from impaired migration of cardiac progenitors into the heart, impaired myocyte proliferation, or both. We found that embryos deficient in scn5Lab displayed defects in primary cardiogenesis specific to loss of nkx2.5, but not nkx2.7 . We generated kaede reporter fish and demonstrated that embryos treated with anti- scn5Lab morpholino showed normal secondary differentiation of cardiomyocytes at the arterial pole between 30 and 48 hours post-fertilization. However, while proliferating myocytes were readily detected at 48 hpf in wild type embryos, there were no BrdU-positive cardiomyocytes in embryos subjected to anti- scn5Lab treatment. Proliferating myocytes were present in embryos injected with anti- tnnt2 morpholino to phenocopy the silent heart mutation, and absent in embryos injected with anti- tnnt2 and anti -scn5Lab morpholinos, indicating cardiac contraction is not required for the loss of proliferation. These data demonstrate that the role of scn5Lab in later heart growth does not involve contribution of the secondary heart field, but rather proliferation of cardiomyocytes, and appears unrelated to the role of the channel in cardiac electrogenesis. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Description: The muscle-specific UNC-45b assists in the folding of sarcomeric myosin. Analysis of the zebrafish unc-45b upstream region revealed that the unc-45b promoter fragments reliably drive GFP expression after germline transmission. The muscle-specific 503-bp minimal promoter 503unc was identified to drive gene expression in the zebrafish musculature. In transgenic Tg(-503unc:GFP) zebrafish, GFP fluorescence was detected in the adaxial cells, their slow fibre descendants and the fast muscle. At later stages, robust GFP fluorescence is eminent in the cardiac, cranial, fin and trunk muscle, thereby recapitulating the unc-45b expression pattern. We propose that the 503unc promoter is a small and muscle-specific promoter that drives robust gene expression throughout the zebrafish musculature, making it a valuable tool for the exploration of zebrafish muscle. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Description: Mice with endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) deletions have defined the crucial role of eNOS in vascular development, homeostasis, and pathology. However, cell specific eNOS function has not been determined, although an important role of eNOS has been suggested in multiple cell types. Here we have generated a floxed eNOS allele in which exons 9-12, encoding the sites essential to eNOS activity, are flanked with loxP sites. Mice homozygous for the floxed allele showed normal eNOS protein levels and no overt phenotype. Conversely, homozygous mice with Cre-deleted alleles displayed truncated eNOS protein, lack of vascular nitric oxide production, and exhibited similar phenotype to eNOS knockout mice, including hypertension, low heart rate, and focal renal scar. These findings demonstrate that the floxed allele is normal and it can be converted to a non-functional eNOS allele through Cre recombination. This mouse will allow time and cell specific eNOS deletion. © 2012 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Description: The rodent incisor is one of a number of organs that grow continuously throughout the life of an animal. Continuous growth of the incisor arose as an evolutionary adaptation to compensate for abrasion at the distal end of the tooth. The sustained turnover of cells that deposit the mineralized dental tissues is made possible by epithelial and mesenchymal stem cells residing at the proximal end of the incisor. A complex network of signaling pathways and transcription factors regulates the formation, maintenance, and differentiation of these stem cells during development and throughout adulthood. Research over the past 15 years has led to significant progress in our understanding of this network, which includes FGF, BMP, Notch, and Hh signaling, as well as cell adhesion molecules and microRNAs. This review surveys key historical experiments that laid the foundation of the field and discusses more recent findings that definitively identified the stem cell population, elucidated the regulatory network, and demonstrated possible genetic mechanisms for the evolution of continuously growing teeth. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Description: Mice with endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) deletions have defined the crucial role of eNOS in vascular development, homeostasis, and pathology. However, cell specific eNOS function has not been determined, although an important role of eNOS has been suggested in multiple cell types. Here we have generated a floxed eNOS allele in which exons 9-12, encoding the sites essential to eNOS activity, are flanked with loxP sites. Mice homozygous for the floxed allele showed normal eNOS protein levels and no overt phenotype. Conversely, homozygous mice with Cre-deleted alleles displayed truncated eNOS protein, lack of vascular nitric oxide production, and exhibited similar phenotype to eNOS knockout mice, including hypertension, low heart rate, and focal renal scar. These findings demonstrate that the floxed allele is normal and it can be converted to a non-functional eNOS allele through Cre recombination. This mouse will allow time and cell specific eNOS deletion. © 2012 Wiley-Liss, Inc.