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 language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1574-1581 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Developmental Dynamics |
Volume | 238 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2009 |
Keywords
- Cardiac
- GATA4
- GATA6
- Myh-15
- Myocardium
- Transgenic
- β-MHC
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental Biology