Pescadillo is required for Xenopus laevis eye development and neural crest migration

Abstract

Pescadillo is a multifunctional, nuclear protein involved in rRNA precursor processing, ribosomal assembly, and transcriptional regulation. Pescadillo has been assigned important functions in embryonic development and tumor formation. We previously identified pescadillo as a potential downstream target of non-canonical Wnt-4 signaling. Here we have investigated for the first time the function of the Xenopus laevis homolog of pescadillo during early embryogenesis on a molecular level. Loss of function analysis indicates that pescadillo is required for eye development and neural crest migration. BrdU incorporation and TUNEL assays indicate that a loss of pescadillo function affects proliferation and triggers apoptosis through a p53-mediated mechanism. Furthermore, pescadillo affects the expression of early eye-specific marker genes, likely independent of its function in regulating proliferation and apoptosis, and in addition migration of cranial neural crest cells. Our data indicate that pescadillo has multiple important functions during X. laevis development and that its function is highly conserved among different species.

The Multiple Phases and Faces of Wnt Signaling During Cardiac Differentiation and Development

“…32,[61][62][63][64]66 Linear heart tube formation ␤-catenin required for cell-cell contact Supports cell adhesion 59,77,88,89,92,93 ; required for morphogenesis 87,89,95 OFT morphogenesis Required for septation (CNCCs) [103][104][105] Required for cytoskeleton formation and cell-cell interactions 77,[106][107][108][109][110][111] Cardiac looping Required (zebrafish) 98 Not known…”

Ribosomal biogenesis genes play an essential and p53-independent role in zebrafish pancreas development

“…The pes gene was originally identified in a zebrafish mutant characterized by major axis defects, small eyes and early embryonic lethality . Both in vitro and in vivo, disruption of pes has been reported to induce a p53 response (Gessert et al, 2007;Rohrmoser et al, 2007). We therefore undertook an analysis of pancreatic development in pes mutant and morphant embryos.…”

PES1 is overexpressed in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…It has been shown that pescadillo could immortalize or transform some kinds of mammalian cells [15,16]. Our previous researches and other investigators' researches showed that PES1 was overexpressed in many kinds of human cancer such as malignant astrocytomas and glioblastomas [6], breast cancer [16][17][18], prostatic cancer [19,20], head and neck squamous cell cancer [21], colon cancer [22], ovarian cancer [23], neuroblastoma [24] and gastric cancer [25]. These results suggest that PES1 may play an important role in tumor progression.…”