isolation-and-culture-of-adult-zebrafish-brain-derived-neurospheres

Isolation and Culture of Adult Zebrafish Brain-derived Neurospheres

The zebrafish is a highly relevant model organism for understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in neurogenesis and brain regeneration ...

Yale University

In this chapter we will describe in detail a method to identify the expression profile of miRNAs in developing vessels in zebrafish embryonic development using Illumina deep sequencing strategy. We will describe how to obtain RNA from FACS-sorted primary endothelial cells from growing vessels at early stages of development and how to prepare high-quality small RNA libraries using the TruSeq small RNA strategy for Illumina Hi-Seq machine. This methodology can be applied to discover and profile all forms of small noncoding RNA, including novel miRNA and sequence variants as well as quantification of miRNAs differentially expressed in endothelial cells during angiogenesis.

miRNAs expression profile in zebrafish developing vessels.

Dicer controls the biogenesis of microRNAs (miRNAs) and is essential for neurogenesis. Recent reports show that the levels and substrate selectivity of DICER result in the preferential biogenesis of specific miRNAs in vitro. However, how dicer expression levels and miRNA biogenesis are regulated in vivo and how this affects neurogenesis is incompletely understood. Here we show that during zebrafish hindbrain development dicer expression levels are controlled by miR-107 to tune the biogenesis of specific miRNAs, such as miR-9, whose levels regulate neurogenesis. Loss of miR-107 function stabilizes dicer levels and miR-9 biogenesis across the ventricular hindbrain zone, resulting in an increase of both proliferating progenitors and postmitotic neurons. miR-9 ectopic accumulation in differentiating neuronal cells recapitulated the excessive neurogenesis phenotype. We propose that miR-107 modulation of dicer levels in differentiating neuronal cells is required to maintain the homeostatic levels of specific miRNAs, whose precise accumulation is essential for neurogenesis.

A Dicer-miR-107 Interaction Regulates Biogenesis of Specific miRNAs Crucial for Neurogenesis.

The sympathetic nervous system controls smooth muscle tone and heart rate in the cardiovascular system. Postganglionic sympathetic neurons (SNs) develop in close proximity to the dorsal aorta (DA) and innervate visceral smooth muscle targets. Here, we use the zebrafish embryo to ask whether the DA is required for SN development. We show that noradrenergic (NA) differentiation of SN precursors temporally coincides with vascular mural cell (VMC) recruitment to the DA and vascular maturation. Blocking vascular maturation inhibits VMC recruitment and blocks NA differentiation of SN precursors. Inhibition of platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) signaling prevents VMC differentiation and also blocks NA differentiation of SN precursors. NA differentiation is normal in cloche mutants that are devoid of endothelial cells but have VMCs. Thus, PDGFR-mediated mural cell recruitment mediates neurovascular interactions between the aorta and sympathetic precursors and promotes their noradrenergic differentiation.

Emma Ristori

Yale Cardiovascular Research Center,
Internal Medicine,
Yale Cardiovascular Research Center, Internal Medicine

Yale University

Isolation and Culture of Adult Zebrafish Brain-derived Neurospheres

Emma Ristori

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Yale University

Isolation and Culture of Adult Zebrafish Brain-derived Neurospheres

Yale Cardiovascular Research Center,
Internal Medicine,
Yale Cardiovascular Research Center, Internal Medicine