Abstract
The Wnt/β-catenin or canonical Wnt signaling pathway plays fundamental roles in early development and in maintaining adult tissue homeostasis. R-spondin 3 (Rspo3) is a secreted protein that has been implicated in activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling in amphibians and mammals. Here we report that zebrafish Rspo3 plays a negative role in regulating the zygotic Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Zebrafish Rspo3 has a unique domain structure. It contains a third furin-like (FU3) domain. This FU3 is present in other four ray-finned fish species studied but not in elephant shark. In zebrafish, rspo3 mRNA is maternally deposited and has a ubiquitous expression in early embryonic stages. After 12 hpf, its expression becomes tissue-specific. Forced expression of rspo3 promotes dorsoanterior patterning and increases the expression of dorsal and anterior marker genes. Knockdown of rspo3 increases ventral-posterior development and stimulates ventral and posterior marker genes expression. Forced expression of rspo3 abolishes exogenous Wnt3a action and reduces the endogenous Wnt signaling activity. Knockdown of rspo3 results in increased Wnt/β-catenin signaling activity. Further analyses indicate that Rspo3 does not promote maternal Wnt signaling. Human RSPO3 has similar action when tested in zebrafish embryos. These results suggest that Rspo3 regulates dorsoventral and anteroposterior patterning by negatively regulating the zygotic Wnt/β-catenin signaling in zebrafish embryos.
Highlights
The Wnt/b-catenin or canonical Wnt signaling pathway plays fundamental roles in early development and in maintaining adult tissue homeostasis in vertebrates [1,2,3]
Our results suggest that bony fish R-spondin 3 (Rspo3) has unique structural features and plays a previously unrecognized role in regulating dorsoventral and anterior-posterior patterning by antagonizing the zygotic Wnt/b-catenin signaling pathway in zebrafish embryos
Forced expression of rspo3 increased the expression of chd and gsc mRNA, while it reduced eve1 and ved mRNA expression
Summary
The Wnt/b-catenin or canonical Wnt signaling pathway plays fundamental roles in early development and in maintaining adult tissue homeostasis in vertebrates [1,2,3]. Maternal b-catenin, localized to the nucleus of dorsal marginal cells, is essential for the formation of the dorsal organizer before gastrulation [1]. Loss of maternal Wnt/b-catenin inhibits dorsal organizer formation and impairs the expression of genes required for dorsal organizer formation, such as bozozok (boz), chordin (chd), and goosecoid (gsc) [4,5,6,7]. Zygotic Wnt/b-catenin signaling, activated by Wnt ligands after mid-blastula transition, is required to initiate ventral cell fates to antagonize the organizer after gastrulation [8,9]. Loss of Wnt in zebrafish embryos or overexpression of Wnt inhibitors such as frzb, dickkopf, and Shisa promotes head development [10,14,15,16]
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