Thesis
Discovery and characterization of a novel myostatin in zebrafish
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2005
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/390
Abstract
The myostatin-null phenotype in mammals is characterized by extreme gains in skeletal muscle mass or "double muscling" as the cytokine negatively regulates skeletal muscle growth. Recent attempts, however, to reproduce a comparable phenotype in zebrafish have failed. Several aspects of myostatin biology in the fishes differ significantly from those in mammals and at least two distinct paralogues have been identified in some species, which possibly suggests functional divergence between the different vertebrate classes or between fish paralogues. Therefore, phylogenetic analysis was conducted on the entire myostatin gene sub-family. Maximum likelihood, Bayesian inference and bootstrap analyses indicated a monophyletic distribution of all myostatin genes with two distinct fish clades: myostatin-1 and myostatin-2. These analyses further indicated that all Salmonid genes described are actually myostatin-1 orthologues and that additional myostatin-2 paralogues may be present in most, if not all, teleosts. An additional zebrafish homologue was identified by BLAST searches of the zebrafish HTGS database and was subsequently cloned. Comparative sequence analysis of both genes (zfMSTN-1 & -2) revealed many differences, primarily within the latency associated peptide regions, but also within the bioactive domains. The 2 kb promoter region of zfMSTN-2 contained many putative cis regulatory elements that are active during myogenesis, but are lacking in the zfMSTN-1 promoter. In fact, zfMSTN-2 expression was limited to the early stages of somitogenesis, while zfMSTN-1 was expressed throughout embryogenesis. These data suggest that zfMSTN-2 may be more closely associated with skeletal muscle growth and development. They also resolve the previous ambiguity in classification of fish myostatin genes.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Discovery and characterization of a novel myostatin in zebrafish
- Creators
- Tovah Briana Kerr
- Contributors
- Buel Dan Rodgers (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Molecular Biosciences, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525189001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis