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tbx6l and tbx16 are redundantly required for posterior paraxial mesoderm formation during zebrafish embryogenesis
Author(s) -
Morrow Zachary T.,
Maxwell Adrienne M.,
Hoshijima Kazuyuki,
Talbot Jared C.,
Grunwald David J.,
Amacher Sharon L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
developmental dynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.634
H-Index - 141
eISSN - 1097-0177
pISSN - 1058-8388
DOI - 10.1002/dvdy.24547
Subject(s) - paraxial mesoderm , biology , zebrafish , somite , mesoderm , genetics , loss function , mutant , pax3 , nodal , embryogenesis , phenotype , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , embryonic stem cell , transcription factor
Background: T‐box genes encode a large transcription factor family implicated in many aspects of development. We are focusing on two related zebrafish T‐box genes, tbx6l and tbx16 , that are expressed in highly overlapping patterns in embryonic paraxial mesoderm. tbx16 mutants are deficient in trunk, but not tail, somites; we explored whether presence of tail somites in tbx16 mutants was due to compensatory function provided by the tbx6l gene. Results: We generated two zebrafish tbx6l mutant alleles. Loss of tbx6l has no apparent effect on embryonic development, nor does tbx6l loss enhance the phenotype of two other T‐box gene mutants, ta and tbx6 , or of the mesp family gene mutant msgn1 . In contrast, loss of tbx6l function dramatically enhances the paraxial mesoderm deficiency of tbx16 mutants. Conclusions: These data demonstrate that tbx6l and tbx16 genes function redundantly to direct tail somite development. tbx6l single mutants develop normally because tbx16 fully compensates for loss of tbx6l function. However, tbx6l only partially compensates for loss of tbx16 function. These results resolve the question of why loss of function of tbx16 gene, which is expressed throughout the ventral and paraxial mesoderm, profoundly affects somite development in the trunk but not the tail. Developmental Dynamics 246:759–769, 2017 . © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.