LIM Homeobox 9 knockdown by morpholino does not affect zebrafish retinal development

Abstract

LIM homeobox 9 (Lhx9) is a member of the LIM homeodomain transcription factor family, which expresses and functions in various vertebrate tissues, such as the gonads and pineal gland. Previous studies on lhx9 in zebrafish have mainly focused on the brain. However, little is known about the expression pattern of lhx9 during embryogenesis. Here, we detected lhx9 expression in zebrafish embryos using whole-mount in situ hybridization and found lhx9 expressed in heart, pectoral fin, and retina during their development in zebrafish. We then detailed the expression of lhx9 in retinal development. To further investigate the function of Lhx9 in retinogenesis, we performed morpholino (MO) knockdown experiments and found that upon lhx9 knockdown by MO, larvae presented normal eye development, retinal neural development, differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, and responses to light stimulus. We not only elaborated the expression pattern of lhx9 in zebrafish embryogenesis, but we also demonstrated that lhx9 knockdown by morpholino does not affect the zebrafish retinal development, and our study provides data for further understanding of the role of Lhx9 in zebrafish retinal development.

Knockout of sws2a and sws2b in Medaka (Oryzias latipes) Reveals Their Roles in Regulating Vision-Guided Behavior and Eye Development

“…Interestingly, the feeding rate and survival rate of larvae of haddock (Mellanogrammus aeglefinus) increased under blue and green light compared with other light colors [43,44]. Light/dark motion tests and responses to light stimuli are effective methods to reflect the integrated function of visual pathways [45][46][47]. In this study, compared with the control group, sws2a −/− and sws2b −/− mutants both significantly increased swimming speed when they changed from light to darkness.…”

Role of Chemokine Cxcl12a in Mediating the Stimulatory Effects of Ethanol on Embryonic Development of Subpopulations of Hypocretin/Orexin Neurons and Their Projections

“…Whereas the low dose (85 ng/µL) MO sp has no splice-altering effect, targeted binding of the high dose (850 ng/µL) MO sp causes alternate splicing that fully excludes exon 2 from the mature cxcl12a mRNA (Figure 1B). The removal of exon 2 creates a smaller PCR product (239 bp), which can cause translation failure and therefore effectively knock down Cxcl12a protein expression [39,40].…”