Loss of Functional Cabin1 Impacts Jaw Morphology in Larval Zebrafish
Mentor 1
Ava Udvadia
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
27-4-2018 1:00 PM
Description
Craniofacial abnormalities are among the most common congenital defects. Nonetheless, their underlying molecular factors are not well understood. We are interested in the role of the transcriptional regulator, Cabin1 in craniofacial development. Previous studies from our lab have shown that morpholino-mediated knockdown of Cabin1 in zebrafish led to reduced survival and defective development in craniofacial elements as early as three days post fertilization. To further investigate the role of Cabin1 in the craniofacial development we are using a Cabin1 knockout zebrafish as our model. We used two mutant strains in this study, each containing a frameshifting deletion that results in a premature termination after the first approximately 100 codons of the 3000 amino acid protein. In order to compare jaw development between wild type and mutant fish, we used Alcian Blue staining to visualize the craniofacial cartilage in six-day old larvae. We captured digital images of stained cartilage from over 187 of larvae, and used morphometric analysis (MorphoJ) to quantitatively evaluate the images. Our preliminary data, based on one mutant strain, suggests a subtle but reproducible difference between wild type and Cabin1 mutated fish. The most dramatic difference is observed between wild type and fish that are homozygous for the Cabin1 mutations. We are currently carrying out studies with our second Cabin1 mutant strain to test the reproducibility of this result. Future studies will investigate the functional implications of jaw abnormalities to prey capture and feeding behaviors.
Loss of Functional Cabin1 Impacts Jaw Morphology in Larval Zebrafish
Union Wisconsin Room
Craniofacial abnormalities are among the most common congenital defects. Nonetheless, their underlying molecular factors are not well understood. We are interested in the role of the transcriptional regulator, Cabin1 in craniofacial development. Previous studies from our lab have shown that morpholino-mediated knockdown of Cabin1 in zebrafish led to reduced survival and defective development in craniofacial elements as early as three days post fertilization. To further investigate the role of Cabin1 in the craniofacial development we are using a Cabin1 knockout zebrafish as our model. We used two mutant strains in this study, each containing a frameshifting deletion that results in a premature termination after the first approximately 100 codons of the 3000 amino acid protein. In order to compare jaw development between wild type and mutant fish, we used Alcian Blue staining to visualize the craniofacial cartilage in six-day old larvae. We captured digital images of stained cartilage from over 187 of larvae, and used morphometric analysis (MorphoJ) to quantitatively evaluate the images. Our preliminary data, based on one mutant strain, suggests a subtle but reproducible difference between wild type and Cabin1 mutated fish. The most dramatic difference is observed between wild type and fish that are homozygous for the Cabin1 mutations. We are currently carrying out studies with our second Cabin1 mutant strain to test the reproducibility of this result. Future studies will investigate the functional implications of jaw abnormalities to prey capture and feeding behaviors.
