Isolation of a ventricle-specific promoter for the zebrafish ventricular myosin heavy chain (vmhc) gene and its regulation by GATA factors during embryonic heart development

Jae Sun Park, Hyung Seok Kim, Jun Dae Kim, Jungwon Seo, Kyung Sook Chung, Ho Sa Lee, Tae Lin Huh, Inho Jo, Yong Ou Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigated chamber-specific gene expression by isolating a 2.2-kb polymerase chain reaction product containing the 5 ′-flanking region of the zebrafish ventricular myosin heavy-chain gene (vmhc). Promoter analysis revealed that the fragment, consisting of nucleotides from -301 to +26, is sufficient for vmhc promoter activity. Among several putative cis-acting elements in the region, a GATA-binding site was identified to be crucial for the activity of the promoter, as evidenced by the complete abolishment of promoter activity by a single nucleotide substitution of GATA-binding site (-287, C→T). Knockdown of GATA-binding proteins 4 and 6 (GATA4 and -6) by their antisense morpholino oligonucleotides resulted in reduced green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene and endogenous vmhc expression. These findings suggest that GATA4 and -6 play a key role in the regulation of vmhc expression in the ventricle. In addition, the vmhc promoter and the transgenic zebrafish (vmhc:gfp) are useful tools to study the formation and function of the ventricle.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1574-1581
Number of pages8
JournalDevelopmental Dynamics
Volume238
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2009

Keywords

  • Cardiac
  • GATA4
  • GATA6
  • Myh-15
  • Myocardium
  • Transgenic
  • β-MHC

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Developmental Biology

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