The Homeobox (Hox) and Paired box (Pax) gene families are key determinants of animal body plans and organ structure. In particular, they function within regulatory networks that control organogenesis. How these conserved genes elicit differences in organ form and function in response to evolutionary pressures is incompletely understood. We molecularly and functionally characterized one member o...

Six genes are vertebrate homologues of the homeobox-containing gene sine oculis, which plays an essential role in controlling Drosophila compound eye development. Here we report the identification and expression patterns of all three subfamilies of Xenopus Six genes. Two Six2 subfamily genes (Six1, Six2) showed very similar expression patterns in cranial ganglia, otic placodes and the eyes. Non...

Jeune asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy (JATD) is a skeletal dysplasia characterized by a small thoracic cage and a range of skeletal and extra-skeletal anomalies. JATD is genetically heterogeneous with at least nine genes identified, all encoding ciliary proteins, hence the classification of JATD as a skeletal ciliopathy. Consistent with the observation that the heterogeneous molecular basis of ...

Podocytes are highly specialized cells in the vertebrate kidney. They participate in the formation of the size-exclusion barrier of the glomerulus/glomus and recruit mesangial and endothelial cells to form a mature glomerulus. At least six transcription factors (wt1, foxc2, hey1, tcf21, lmx1b and mafb) are known to be involved in podocyte specification, but how they interact to drive the differ...

We have analyzed the expression and intracellular distribution, during oogenesis and embryogenesis, of Vg1 RBP, a protein implicated in the intracellular localization of Vg1 mRNA to the vegetal cortex of Xenopus oocytes. Vg1 RBP (protein) colocalizes with Vg1 RNA at all stages of oogenesis. Vg1 RBP RNA, however, localizes to the animal pole during late oogenesis, and remains in the animal blast...

The kidneys are one of the vital organs in the human body. It receives rich blood supply, nearly 25% of the cardiac output pass through the renal arteries to be filtered by the kidneys. These are end arteries with no anastomosis. Variations in the number and arrangement of the renal vessels are extremely common. The so called aberrant or accessory arteries are in fact, normal segmental arteries...

Outer membrane protein C of Edwardsiella tarda is a major cell surface antigen and it was identified to be an immunogenic protein by Western blot using flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) anti-recombinant OmpC (rOmpC), and anti-E. tarda antibodies. rOmpC tested the immune protective effect against E. tarda challenge in a flounder model and produced a relative percentage of survival rate of 85%. T...

The P2X7 receptor participates in purinergic signaling, which may promote the progression of ADPKD. We examined the effects of a P2X7 receptor antagonist and a P2X7 receptor agonist on cyst development in a zebrafish model of polycystic kidney disease in which we knocked down pkd2 by morpholinos. We used live wt-1b pronephric-specific GFP-expressing zebrafish embryos to directly observe changes...

Human ARHGEF11, a PDZ-domain-containing Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor (RhoGEF), has been studied primarily in tissue culture, where it exhibits transforming ability, associates with and modulates the actin cytoskeleton, regulates neurite outgrowth, and mediates activation of Rho in response to stimulation by activated Galpha12/13 or Plexin B1. The fruit fly homolog, RhoGEF2, interacts ...