PUBLICATION
Molecular and cellular determinants of motor asymmetry in zebrafish
- Authors
- Horstick, E.J., Bayleyen, Y., Burgess, H.A.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-200305-3
- Date
- 2020
- Source
- Nature communications 11: 1170 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Burgess, Harold, Horstick, Eric
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Habenula/physiology
- Animals, Genetically Modified
- Diencephalon/physiology
- Larva/physiology
- Motor Activity/physiology*
- PubMed
- 32127541 Full text @ Nat. Commun.
Abstract
Asymmetries in motor behavior, such as human hand preference, are observed throughout bilateria. However, neural substrates and developmental signaling pathways that impose underlying functional lateralization on a broadly symmetric nervous system are unknown. Here we report that in the absence of over-riding visual information, zebrafish larvae show intrinsic lateralized motor behavior that is mediated by a cluster of 60 posterior tuberculum (PT) neurons in the forebrain. PT neurons impose motor bias via a projection through the habenular commissure. Acquisition of left/right identity is disrupted by heterozygous mutations in mosaic eyes and mindbomb, genes that regulate Notch signaling. These results define the neuronal substrate for motor asymmetry in a vertebrate and support the idea that haploinsufficiency for genes in a core developmental pathway destabilizes left/right identity.
Genes / Markers
Figure Gallery (7 images)
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping