Open AccessPeter Pan functions independently of its role in ribosome biogenesis during early eye and craniofacial cartilage development in Xenopus laevis
Author(s) -
Verena Bugner,
Aleksandra Tecza,
Susanne Gessert,
Michael Kühl
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.754
H-Index - 325
eISSN - 1477-9129
pISSN - 0950-1991
DOI - 10.1242/dev.060160
Subject(s) - biology , xenopus , morpholino , microbiology and biotechnology , translation (biology) , ribosome biogenesis , eye development , ribosome , nucleolus , cranial neural crest , zebrafish , neural crest , genetics , messenger rna , rna , gene , embryo , transcription factor , cytoplasm
The Xenopus oocyte possesses a large maternal store of ribosomes, thereby uncoupling early development from the de novo ribosome biosynthesis required for cell growth. Brix domain-containing proteins, such as Peter Pan (PPan), are essential for eukaryotic ribosome biogenesis. In this study, we demonstrate that PPan is expressed maternally as well as in the eye and cranial neural crest cells (NCCs) during early Xenopus laevis development. Depletion of PPan and interference with rRNA processing using antisense morpholino oligonucleotides resulted in eye and cranial cartilage malformations. Loss of PPan, but not interference with rRNA processing, led to an early downregulation of specific marker genes of the eye, including Rx1 and Pax6, and of NCCs, such as Twist, Slug and FoxD3. We found that PPan protein is localized in the nucleoli and mitochondria and that loss of PPan results in increased apoptosis. These findings indicate a novel function of PPan that is independent of its role in ribosome biogenesis.