Characterization and comparative expression of zebrafish calpain system genes during early development

Abstract

The classic calpain system has been implicated in regulating a variety of cellular processes including cell adhesion, migration, and intracellular signaling; however, little is known regarding the function of this system in vivo. Two heterodimeric Ca 2؉ -dependent cysteine proteases, -calpain (CAPN1) and m-calpain (CAPN2), and the endogenous inhibitor calpastatin (CAST) comprise the classic/ubiquitous calpain system in mammals. Recently, knockout of two murine classic calpain genes, Capn2 and Capn4/Capns1, revealed that components of the classic system are indispensable for preimplantation development. We identified four classic calpain catalytic subunit genes (capn1a, 1b, 2a, 2b), two regulatory subunit genes (capns1a, 1b), and calpastatin (cast) from the zebrafish. Our data suggest that the components of the classic mammalian system are both conserved and expanded in the teleost lineage. In contrast to the classic/ubiquitous mammalian system, zebrafish calpain system genes acquire unique, tissue-specific patterns of expression within the first 2 days of development. Developmental Dynamics 237:819 -829, 2008.

Characterization and expression of the calpastatin gene in Cyprinus carpio

“…The phylogenetic tree was constructed by the neighbor-joining (NJ) method using the programs CLUSTAL X1.83 (Lepage and Bruce, 2008) and MEGA4 (Tamura et al, 2007). The conserved domain of the C. carpio CAST protein was analyzed using the NCBI CD-Search tool, and the secondary structure was predicted using GOR IV (http://gor.bb.iastate.…”

“…In chicken, CAST expression may be related to muscle fiber development (Zhang et al, 2012). Lepage and Bruce (2008) reported the characterization and comparative expression of calpain in zebrafish. Overturf and Gaylord (2009) compared the expression of the CAST gene in the muscle of fish fed fishmeal with plant protein diets and suggested that diets replacing fishmeal with plant material can have some effects on protein turnover in the muscle of rainbow trout.…”

Molecular Evolution Within Protease Family C2, or Calpains

“…Fish due to polyploidization events in nature history have a duplicate set of most of the fifteen mammalian calpains and calpain-related molecules (Lepage & Bruce, 2008;Macqueen et al, 2010).…”

Fish as model systems for the study of vertebrate apoptosis

“…-dependent cysteine proteinases implicated with pro-and anti-apoptotic functions in mammals [75]. So far, it has been documented that calpains and the related regulatory protein calpastatin are differentially expressed in starving trout [76,77], in developing zebrafish [78], and in trout hepatocytes exposed to anoxia in vitro [79], where an increase in calpain activity might facilitate apoptosis by cleavage of anti-apoptotic proteins [80].…”