Specification, maintenance and differentiation of neural crest (NC) cells depend on multiple signaling pathways. In Xenopus and zebrafish, low levels of Bmp and high levels of Wnt signaling cooperate in NC induction (Saint-Jeannet et al., 1997;Wilson et al., 1997;Dorsky et al., 1998;Lewis et al., 2004). As Wnt signaling regulates anterior-posterior (A-P) patterning of the neural plate (Kim et al., 2000;McGrew et al., 1997;McGrew et al., 1995), Wnt signals might induce NC through posteriorization. However, neural A-P patterning and NC induction are separable events (Wu et al., 2005). A recent study indicates that Wnt-mediated posteriorization of the neural plate border (NPB) rather than the neural plate is crucial in NC induction . Signaling pathways active in NC specification are modulated by activators and inhibitors to regulate their strength and spatial distribution (Hong and SaintJeannet, 2007;Sauka-Spengler and Bronner-Fraser, 2008;Zhao et al., 2008). Here we introduce a factor, Potassium channel tetramerization domain containing 15 (Kctd15), that has a profound influence on NC formation in zebrafish and Xenopus embryos. KCTD15 was identified in humans (Hotta et al., 2009;Willer et al., 2009) as a BTB domain-containing protein of unknown function. We show that zebrafish kctd15a and kctd15b are expressed at the NPB at the end of gastrulation. Ectopic expression of Kctd15 inhibits NC specification, whereas knockdown leads to expansion of NC markers. Simultaneous attenuation of Wnt and Kctd15 expression rescues NC specification in zebrafish embryos. We suggest that Kctd15 restricts the NC domain by interfering with the functioning or output of the Wnt/b-catenin signaling pathway.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Animal maintenance and embryonic stagingZebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos from AB/TL and TOP-dGFP (Dorsky et al., 2002) lines were obtained (Westerfield, 2000), and stages are indicated as hours post fertilization (hpf) (Kimmel et al., 1995). Xenopus laevis were staged according to (Nieuwkoop and Faber, 1967).
Plasmids and DNA constructsThe open reading frames (ORFs) of zebrafish kctd15a (BC083478), zebrafish kctd15b (BC078294) and X. laevis kctd15 (BC077862) were subcloned into pCS2 + . The zebrafish b-cat* construct has four point mutations; S33A, S37A, T41A and S45A.
MO and mRNA injectionMorpholino oligonucleotides (MO) were targeted to 5ЈUTR regions of zebrafish kctd15a (5Ј-TCCTTCCCTCCTTGGAAGACATAGC-3Ј) and zebrafish kctd15b (5Ј-AGCTCTCCTTCCCCCTCTTGATCTT-3Ј) (Gene Tools). Embryos at 1-2 cells were injected with 1.5 ng Kctd15a plus 0.5 ng Kctd15b MO; 2 ng Wnt8.1a MO (Lewis et al., 2004); or 2-4 ng standard control MO (5Ј-CCTC TTACCCTCAGTTACAATTTATA-3Ј) per embryo. 5Ј-capped mRNAs were prepared using the mMESSAGE mMACHINE Kit (Ambion). Each zebrafish embryo was injected with 50 pg kctd15a, kctd15b, DNkctd15a, DCkctd15a, kctd10, kctd6 or kctd13 mRNA, or 5 pg b-cat* mRNA. One blastomere of 2-cell Xenopus embryos was injected with 250 pg of Xkctd15 mRNA. For rescue experiments, 1-10 pg of mRNA was injected into fish...