Identification of RALDH2 regulatory mechanisms during the spinal cord dorsal-ventral patterning.

A sinalização pelo ácido retinóico (AR) é fundamental para o correto desenvolvimento embrionário. A principal enzima responsável pela síntese do AR durante o desenvolvimento é a Raldh2 (Aldh1a2), cujo padrão de expressão é bastante dinâmico. Apesar dos padrões de expressão da raldh2 e seus papéis durante o desenvolvimento já estarem bem estabelecidos, pouco se conhece sobre sua regulação. Estudos de bioinformática identificaram no gene raldh2 um elemento não-codante conservado (CNE), presente de anfíbios até humanos, denominado Raldh2.2. Utilizando ensaios de eletroporação e análise de camundongos transgênicos, nós mostramos que o CNE Raldh2.2 é um enhancer responsável por ativar a expressão da raldh2 na medula espinhal dorsal de tetrápodes e que seu padrão de atividade coincide em aves e camundongos. Através de ensaios de deleções e mutações sítio-direcionadas desse enhancer, identificamos quatro elementos cis regulatórios responsáveis por ativá-lo na placa do teto e em interneurônios dorsais da medula espinhal. A regulação positiva da atividade desse enhancer ocorre de maneira redundante por três sítios Tcf-homeobox, enquanto sua inibição nos interneurônios ventrais da medula espinhal se dá por dois sítos repressores, um Lim-homeodomínio e um Tgif. Neste trabalho, utilizando hibridação in situ dupla para raldh2 e math1/cath1, descrevemos um novo território transiente de expressão da raldh2, os interneurônios dorsais 1. Esses interneurônios dão origem a circuitos ascendentes e a interneurônios comissurais intraespinhais, sugerindo papéis para a sinalização pelo ácido retinóico na ontogenia dos circuitos proprioceptivos espinocerebelar e intraespinhal.Retinoic acid (RA) signaling is crucial for correct embryonic development. Raldh2 is the major enzyme involved in retinoic acid synthesis during early development and its expression pattern is dynamic. Raldh2 expression patterns and its roles during development are well known, but little is known about its regulation. Bioinformatic analysis identified a conserved non-coding element (CNE) in the raldh2 gene conserved from amphibians to humans, called Raldh2. Using electroporation assays and transgenic mice analysis we showed that CNE Raldh2.2 is an enhancer that activates raldh2 in the dorsal spinal cord in tetrapods and that its activity pattern is the same in chicken and mice. Using deletions assays and site-directed mutagenesis, we identified four cis regulatory elements that activate this enhancer in the roof plate and dorsal interneurons of the spinal cord. This enhancer is activated by a redundant mechanism through three predicted Tcf-homeobox biding sites and it is repressed in ventral interneurons via two repressors sites, a Lim-homeodomain and a Tgif. In this thesis, using in situ hybridization, we described a new transient territory of raldh2 expression, the dorsal interneurons 1. These interneurons give rise to ascending circuits and intraspinal commissural interneurons, suggesting roles for retinoic acid signaling in the ontogeny of spinocerebellar and intraspinal proprioceptive circuits

Análise da migraçao e distribuiçao de melanoblastos na pele de embrioes da ave japonesa de plumagem branca

Orientadora: Claudia Feijó Ortolani MachadoMonografia (Bacharelado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná. Setor de Ciencias Biológicas. Curso de Graduaçao em Ciencias BiológicasResumo : As células pigmentares têm origem na crista neural, que se forma no estágio de neurulação. Na região do tronco, as células da crista neural migram inicialmente pela via ventral, entre o somito e o tubo neural, dando origem aos neurônios e células da glia. Aproximadamente um dia depois, migram pela via dorso lateral, entre a ectoderme e o somito, atingindo regiões periféricas do embrião e povoando a pele, onde se diferenciam em melanócitos (células pigmentares). Em embriões da galinha Sedosa Japonesa de plumagem branca (SJB) os melanoblastos, precursores dos melanócitos, além de migrarem dorsolateralmente, também migram ventralmente, o que faz com que a derme e alguns órgãos internos dessa ave sejam pigmentados, apesar de suas penas serem despigmentadas. Com o objetivo de determinar o estágio de desenvolvimento embrionário em que os melanoblastos penetram na ectoderme do embrião da galinha SJB e verificar se essas células ainda estão presentes na pele e penas de embriões de 12 e 14 dias de desenvolvimento, procedeu-se a análise imunocitoquímica em cortes da região do tronco de embriões nos estágios (ST) 20, 22, 24, 38 (12 dias) e 40 (14 dias) utilizando o soro Smyth fine, um marcador para melanoblastos em estágios iniciais de mel ano gênese. Os melanoblastos penetram na ectoderme no ST 22 e ainda estão presentes na epiderme e derme tanto da pele quanto da pena aos 12e 14 dias de desenvolvimento. Não se conhece ainda o destino dos melanoblastos da epiderme da pele, uma vez que não dão origem a melanócitos nesse tecido. Talvez estas células migrem para povoar as penas e somente lá sofrerem diferenciação, ou talvez, o fator de sobrevivência dessas células não esteja presente na epiderme da pele, causando seu desaparecimento

High glucose levels affect retinal patterning during zebrafish embryogenesis

Abstract Maternal hyperglycaemia has a profound impact on the developing foetus and increases the risk of developing abnormalities like obesity, impaired glucose tolerance and insulin secretory defects in the post-natal life. Increased levels of glucose in the blood stream due to diabetes causes visual disorders like retinopathy. However, the impact of maternal hyperglycaemia due to pre-existing or gestational diabetes on the developing foetal retina is unknown. The aim of this work was to study the effect of hyperglycaemia on the developing retina using zebrafish as a vertebrate model. Wild-type and transgenic zebrafish embryos were exposed to 0, 4 and 5% D-Glucose in a pulsatile manner to mimic the fluctuations in glycaemia experienced by the developing foetus in pregnant women with diabetes. The zebrafish embryos displayed numerous ocular defects associated with altered retinal cell layer thickness, increased presence of macrophages, and decreased number of Müeller glial and retinal ganglion cells following high-glucose exposure. We have developed a model of gestational hyperglycaemia using the zebrafish embryo to study the effect of hyperglycaemia on the developing embryonic retina. The data suggests that glucose exposure is detrimental to the development of embryonic retina and the legacy of this exposure may extend into adulthood. These data suggest merit in retinal assessment in infants born to mothers with pre-existing and gestational diabetes both in early and adult life

An unauthorized biography of the second heart field and a pioneer/scaffold model for cardiac development

International audienceThe identification of subpharyngeal cardiac precursors has had a strong influence on the way we think about early cardiac development. From this discovery was born the concept of multiple heart fields. Early support for the concept came from gene expression, genetic retrospective fate mapping, and gene targeting studies, which collectively suggested the existence of a second heart field (SHF) on the basis of specific Islet-1 (Isl-1) expression, presence of two cardiac ancestral lineages, and compatible cardiac knockout phenotypes, respectively. A decade after the original studies, support for the SHF concept is dwindling. This is because in all bilaterian models studied, Isl expression in heart progenitors is not SHF-specific, because lineage data are best explained by alternative models including an older, truly ancestral, lineage of cardiac pioneers with unrestricted contribution to all cardiac segments and, finally, because the inflow-to-outflow segmental nature of the early vertebrate peristaltic heart has been reaffirmed with novel, less invasive, methodologies. Altogether, the paradigms derived from the discovery of subpharyngeal cardiac progenitors helped us shift from relatively simple models, which rely predominantly either on patterning, gene expression patterns or lineages, to a much more sophisticated body of knowledge in which all these parameters must be accounted. Thus, it is well possible that due consideration of the key elements contained in the inflow/outflow, pioneer/scaffold, ballooning, and SHF hypotheses may provide us with a unified framework of the early stages of cardiac development. Here, we advance into this direction by suggesting an intuitive model of early heart development based on the concept of an inflow/outflow scaffold erected by cardiac pioneers, one that is required to assemble all the subsequent cell contribution that emigrates from cardiac progenitor areas

Unraveling the evolutionary origin of the complex Nuclear Receptor Element (cNRE), a cis-regulatory module required for preferential expression in the atrial chamber

Abstract Cardiac function requires appropriate proteins in each chamber. Atria requires slow myosin to act as reservoirs, while ventricles demand fast myosin for swift pumping. Myosins are thus under chamber-biased cis-regulation, with myosin gene expression imbalances leading to congenital heart dysfunction. To identify regulatory inputs leading to cardiac chamber-biased expression, we computationally and molecularly dissected the quail Slow Myosin Heavy Chain III (SMyHC III) promoter that drives preferential expression to the atria. We show that SMyHC III gene states are orchestrated by a complex Nuclear Receptor Element (cNRE) of 32 base pairs. Using transgenesis in zebrafish and mice, we demonstrate that preferential atrial expression is achieved by a combinatorial regulatory input composed of atrial activation motifs and ventricular repression motifs. Using comparative genomics, we show that the cNRE might have emerged from an endogenous viral element through infection of an ancestral host germline, revealing an evolutionary pathway to cardiac chamber-specific expression