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Essential roles of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, Capsulin and Musculin, during craniofacial myogenesis of zebrafish

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Abstract

Capsulin and Musculin are basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, but their biophysiological roles in zebrafish cranial myogenesis are unclear. Expressions of endogenous capsulin transcripts are detected at the central- (~24-hpf) and at dorsal- and ventral-mesoderm cores (~30–72 hpf) of branchial arches. In contrast, musculin transcripts are expressed as a two-phase manner: early phase (20–22 hpf) expressions of musculin are detected at the head mesoderm, whereas late-phase (36–72 hpf) are detected at all presumptive head-muscle precursors. Knockdown of either capsulin or musculin leads to loss of all cranial muscles without affecting trunk muscle development. The defective phenotypes of Capsulin- and Musculin-morphant can be rescued by co-injection of mRNA of each other. Both myf5 and myod transcripts are down-regulated in the Capsulin-morphant while myod transcripts are up-regulated in the Musculin-morphant. Therefore, we propose a putative regulatory network to understand how capsulin/musculin regulate distinctly either myf5 or myod during zebrafish craniofacial myogenesis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Science Council, Republic of China, under grant number of NSC 97-2313-B-032-001-MY3. We are also grateful to the Zebrafish Core in Academia Sinica (ZCAS) for providing tbx1 plasmid.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Institute of Life Sciences, Tamkang University, No. 151 Ying-chun Road, Tamsui, Taipei County, 251, Taiwan

    Gang-Hui Lee, Min-Yen Chang & Yau-Hung Chen

  2. Department of Chemistry, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taiwan

    Chia-Hao Hsu & Yau-Hung Chen

Authors
  1. Gang-Hui Lee
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  2. Min-Yen Chang
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  3. Chia-Hao Hsu
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  4. Yau-Hung Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yau-Hung Chen.

Additional information

G.-H. Lee and M.-Y. Chang contributed equally to this work.

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Supplementary material 1 (DOC 33 kb)

18_2011_637_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Fig. S1. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence of zebrafish Musculin with those of other known species. The information was obtained from the GenBank nucleotide sequence database with the following accession numbers: human (NP_005089.2), cattle (NM_001192146), rat (XP_001063707.1), mouse (NP_034957.1), and Xenopus (NP_001096235.1) Musculin. Amino acid residues similar to those of the zebrafish Musculin are presented in gray. (TIFF 535 kb)

18_2011_637_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Fig. S2. Molecular phylogenic analysis of zebrafish Capsulin and Musculin with those of other known species. Data were obtained from GenBank nucleotide sequence database with the following accession numbers: human (Capsulin: NM_003206; Musculin: NP_005089.2), cattle (NM_001014899; NM_001192146), rat (XM_419734; XP_001063707.1), mouse (NM_011545; NP_034957.1), and Xenopus (AY660871; NP_001096235.1). (TIFF 161 kb)

18_2011_637_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Fig. S3. Myogenic genes, myogenin and α-actin, were affected in the Capsulin-morphant. The transcripts of myogenin (A-B) and α-actin (C-D) in Uninjected embryos, and Capsulin-morphants at the embryonic stages (hpf) indicated were analyzed by whole-mount in situ hybridization. (TIFF 353 kb)

18_2011_637_MOESM5_ESM.tif

Fig. S4. Upstream signals regulate capsulin expression. The expression patterns of capsulin in (A) vehicle-treated, (B) cyclopamine-treated and (C) SU5402-treated embryos at 24 and 30 hpf. (TIFF 849 kb)

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Lee, GH., Chang, MY., Hsu, CH. et al. Essential roles of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, Capsulin and Musculin, during craniofacial myogenesis of zebrafish. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 68, 4065–4078 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-011-0637-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-011-0637-2

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