(Below N is a link to NCBI taxonomic web page and E link to ESTHER at designed phylum.) > cellular organisms: NE > Eukaryota: NE > Opisthokonta: NE > Metazoa: NE > Eumetazoa: NE > Bilateria: NE > Deuterostomia: NE > Chordata: NE > Craniata: NE > Vertebrata: NE > Gnathostomata: NE > Teleostomi: NE > Euteleostomi: NE > Actinopterygii: NE > Actinopteri: NE > Neopterygii: NE > Teleostei: NE > Osteoglossocephalai: NE > Clupeocephala: NE > Otomorpha: NE > Ostariophysi: NE > Otophysi: NE > Cypriniphysae: NE > Cypriniformes: NE > Cyprinoidea: NE > Cyprinidae: NE > Danio: NE > Danio rerio: NE
LegendThis sequence has been compared to family alignement (MSA) red => minority aminoacid blue => majority aminoacid color intensity => conservation rate title => sequence position(MSA position)aminoacid rate Catalytic site Catalytic site in the MSA MCWRIFSAYIGVQQRQQHPVSQTMWLAMRKKRLLLHHQDCCSRRACNISL WILVFCWCMMLVRGQGYYPTVNTQYGKLRGARVPLHSEILGPVDQYLGVP YATPPVGEKRFLPPEPPSSWSGIKNATHFAPVCPQNIHNAVPEIMMPIWF TFNLDIVATSIQDQNEDCLYLNIYVPTEDVKRISKECTRKPNKKICRKGG THSKKQGEDLSDNDGDEDEDIRDTGAKPVMVYIHGGSYMEGTGNMIDGSV LASYGNVIVITLNFRVGVLGFLSTGDQAAKGNYGLLDQIQALRWISENIG YFGGDSNRITVFGSGIGASCVSLLTLSHHSEGLFHRAIIQSGSALSSWAV NYQPVKYTRLLAEKVGCNVLDTLDMVDCLRKKSARELVEQDIQPARYHVA FGPVIDGDVIPDDPEILMEQGEFLNYDIMLGVNQGEGLRFVENVVDSEDG VSGNDFDFSVSDFVDSLYGYPEGKDTLRETIKFMYTDWADRDNPETRRKT LVALFTDHQWVEPSVVTADLHARYGSPTYFYAFYHHCQSLMKPAWSDAAH GDEVPYVFGIPMIGPTDLFPCNFSKNDIMLSAVVMTYWANFAKTGDPNKP VPQDTKFIHTKANRFEEVAWSKYNPQDQLYLHIGLKPRVRDHYRATKVAF WKHLVPHLYNLHDMFHYTSTTTKVPPLETTQNSLSTKRPNGKAWPFNTKR PPMSPAYNSESGKEQWNGEEEPGPLVVESPRDYSTELSVTIAVGASLLFL NVLAFAALYYRKDKRRQEQHPQPSPPRATTTNDVNRHAPEEEIMSLQVNQ THHECDAGPTGDPLRLASLPDYALTLRRSPDDIPLMTPNTITMIPNSLVG MPNLHPYNTFTAGFNSTGLPHSHSTTRV
Zebrafish have become a popular organism for the study of vertebrate gene function. The virtually transparent embryos of this species, and the ability to accelerate genetic studies by gene knockdown or overexpression, have led to the widespread use of zebrafish in the detailed investigation of vertebrate gene function and increasingly, the study of human genetic disease. However, for effective modelling of human genetic disease it is important to understand the extent to which zebrafish genes and gene structures are related to orthologous human genes. To examine this, we generated a high-quality sequence assembly of the zebrafish genome, made up of an overlapping set of completely sequenced large-insert clones that were ordered and oriented using a high-resolution high-density meiotic map. Detailed automatic and manual annotation provides evidence of more than 26,000 protein-coding genes, the largest gene set of any vertebrate so far sequenced. Comparison to the human reference genome shows that approximately 70% of human genes have at least one obvious zebrafish orthologue. In addition, the high quality of this genome assembly provides a clearer understanding of key genomic features such as a unique repeat content, a scarcity of pseudogenes, an enrichment of zebrafish-specific genes on chromosome 4 and chromosomal regions that influence sex determination.
Title: Differential expression of neuroligin genes in the nervous system of zebrafish Davey C, Tallafuss A, Washbourne P Ref: Developmental Dynamics, 239:703, 2010 : PubMed
The establishment and maturation of appropriate synaptic connections is crucial in the development of neuronal circuits. Cellular adhesion is believed to play a central role in this process. Neuroligins are neuronal cell adhesion molecules that are hypothesized to act in the initial formation and maturation of synaptic connections. In order to establish the zebrafish as a model to investigate the in vivo role of Neuroligin proteins in nervous system development, we identified the zebrafish orthologs of neuroligin family members and characterized their expression. Zebrafish possess seven neuroligin genes. Synteny analysis and sequence comparisons show that NLGN2, NLGN3, and NLGN4X are duplicated in zebrafish, but NLGN1 has a single zebrafish ortholog. All seven zebrafish neuroligins are expressed in complex patterns in the developing nervous system and in the adult brain. The spatial and temporal expression patterns of these genes suggest that they occupy a role in nervous system development and maintenance.
Neuroligins constitute a family of transmembrane proteins localized at the postsynaptic side of both excitatory and inhibitory synapses of the central nervous system. They are involved in synaptic function and maturation and recent studies have linked mutations in specific human Neuroligins to mental retardation and autism. We isolated the human Neuroligin homologs in Danio rerio. Next, we studied their gene structures and we reconstructed the evolution of the Neuroligin genes across vertebrate phyla. Using reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, we analyzed the expression and alternative splicing pattern of each gene during zebrafish embryonic development and in different adult organs. By in situ hybridization, we analyzed the temporal and spatial expression pattern during embryonic development and larval stages and we found that zebrafish Neuroligins are expressed throughout the nervous system. Globally, our results indicate that, during evolution, specific subfunctionalization events occurred within paralogous members of this gene family in zebrafish.
