DNA interference-mediated screening of maternal factors in the chordate Oikopleura dioica
| Autor: | Takeshi A. Onuma, Masaki Matsuo, Tatsuya Omotezako, Hiroki Nishida |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Gene knockdown Multidisciplinary biology dnaI Chordate Cell fate determination biology.organism_classification Article Cell biology 03 medical and health sciences Oogenesis 030104 developmental biology Gene Knockdown Techniques Botany Oocytes Animals Female Oikopleura dioica Urochordata Gene Zebrafish |
| Zdroj: | Scientific Reports |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Popis: | The maternal contribution to the oocyte cytoplasm plays an important role during embryogenesis because it is involved in early cell fate specification and embryonic axis establishment. However, screening projects targeting maternal factors have only been conducted in a limited number of animal models, such as nematodes, fruit flies, and zebrafish, while few maternal genes have been analysed because of difficulties encountered in inhibiting gene products already expressed in the ovaries. Therefore, simple and efficient methods for large-scale maternal screening are necessary. The appendicularian Oikopleura dioica is a planktonic tunicate member of the chordates. Gonadal microinjection and a novel gene knockdown method, DNA interference (DNAi), have been developed for use in this animal with the aim of inhibiting gene functions during oogenesis within the gonad. In this study, we adapted these methods for large-scale maternal factor screening, and observed malformation phenotypes related to some maternal factors. Approximately 2000 (56.9%) ovary-enriched gene products were screened, of which the knockdown of seven encoding genes resulted in various abnormalities during embryonic development. Most of these were related to microtubules and cell adhesion-related proteins. We conclude that DNAi is a potentially powerful screening tool for the identification of novel maternal factors in chordates. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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