Logo image
Kinesin-12 influences axonal growth during zebrafish neural development
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Kinesin-12 influences axonal growth during zebrafish neural development

Man Xu, Dong Liu, Zhangji Dong, Xin Wang, Xueqian Wang, Yan Liu, Peter W Baas and Mei Liu
Cytoskeleton (Hoboken, N.J.), v 71(10), pp 555-563
Oct 2014
PMID: 25250533
url
https://doi.org/10.1002/cm.21193View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

microtubule kinesin-12 axon zebrafish in situ hybridization
Kinesin-12 (also called KIF15) is a microtubule-based motor protein best known for its role in cell division. We previously reported that kinesin-12 is robustly expressed in developing terminally post-mitotic neurons, with levels diminishing as neurons reach maturity. We found that axons of cultured rodent neurons grow faster and longer if kinesin-12 is experimentally depleted, leading us to conclude that kinesin-12 plays a role in modulating axonal growth. Here we used zebrafish to explore whether these results apply to an in vivo system and whether they apply across different kinds of vertebrates. In whole mount in situ hybridization, kinesin-12 mRNA was detectable at 2-cell and 1K-cell stages. At 5.3 and 8 hours post-fertilization (hpf), hybridization signal for kinesin-12 mRNA was observed in the ectoderm. From 14 to 36 hpf, the signal had expanded to the central nervous system. At 60 hpf, the hybridization signal was concentrated in the brain. After 5 days post-fertilization, kinesin-12 expression was reduced. Kinesin-12 knockdown resulted in notably longer fast-growing axons with fewer branches by injection of a splice-blocking morpholino into Tg(huC:egfp) or Tg(hb9:gfp) zebrafish embryos. Kinesin-12 overexpression resulted in shorter axons than controls. These results are consistent with our previous observations on rodents using primary cultures for the experimental manipulations, and suggest a key role of kinesin-12 as a modulator of axonal development.

Metrics

9 Record Views
37 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Cell Biology
Logo image