Open AccessDevelopmental Role of Zebrafish Protease-Activated Receptor 1 (PAR1) in the Cardio-Vascular System
Author(s) -
Elín Ellertsdóttir,
Peter Berthold,
Mohamed Bouzaffour,
Pascale Dufourcq,
Vincent Trayer,
Carole Gauron,
Sophie Vriz,
Markus Affolter,
Christine Rampon
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0042131
Subject(s) - zebrafish , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , g protein coupled receptor , receptor , function (biology) , signal transduction , genetics , gene
Thrombin receptor, F2R or PAR1 is a G-protein coupled receptor, located in the membrane of endothelial cells. It has been initially found to transduce signals in hemostasis, but recently also known to act in cancer and in vascular development. Mouse embryos lacking PAR1 function die from hemorrhages with varying frequency at midgestation. We have performed a survey of potential PAR1 homologs in the zebrafish genome and identified a teleost ortholog of mammalian PAR1. Knockdown of par1 function in zebrafish embryos demonstrates a requirement for Par1 in cardio-vascular development. Furthermore, we show that function of Par1 requires the presence of a phylogenetically conserved proteolytic cleavage site and a second intracellular domain. Altogether our results demonstrate a high degree of conservation of PAR1 proteins in the vertebrate lineage in respect to amino acid sequence as well as protein function.