Methionine aminopeptidase 2 is required for HSC initiation and proliferation.

In a chemical screening, we tested the antiangiogenic effects of fumagillin derivatives and identified fumagillin as an inhibitor of definitive hematopoiesis in zebrafish embryos. Fumagillin is known to target methionine aminopeptidase II (MetAP2), an enzyme whose function in hematopoiesis is unknown. We investigated the role of MetAP2 in hematopoiesis by using zebrafish embryo and human umbilical cord blood models. Zebrafish metap2 was expressed ubiquitously during early embryogenesis and later in the somitic region, the caudal hematopoietic tissue, and pronephric duct. metap2 was inhibited by morpholino and fumagillin treatment, resulting in increased mpo expression at 18 hours postfertilization and reduced c-myb expression along the ventral wall of dorsal aorta at 36 hours postfertilization. It also disrupted intersegmental vessels in Tg(fli1:gfp) embryos without affecting development of major axial vasculatures. Inhibition of MetAP2 in CB CD34(+) cells by fumagillin had no effect on overall clonogenic activity but significantly reduced their engraftment into immunodeficient nonobese diabetes/severe combined immunodeficiency mice. metap2 knock-down in zebrafish and inhibition by fumagillin in zebrafish and human CB CD34(+) cells inhibited Calmodulin Kinase II activity and induced ERK phosphorylation. This study demonstrated a hitherto-undescribed role of MetAP2 in definitive hematopoiesis and a possible link to noncanonical Wnt and ERK signaling.

Role of a novel zebrafish nup98 during embryonic development.

OBJECTIVE: The nucleoporin NUP98 is a component of the nuclear pore complex that regulates nucleocytoplasmic trafficking. It has been characterized in acute myeloid leukemia as a fusion partner during chromosomal translocation. In this study, we identified a zebrafish nup98 gene and examined its role in embryonic development. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two expressed sequence tags with translated sequences homologous to human NUP98 were identified. The gene was cloned by polymerase chain reaction from complementary DNA of zebrafish embryos. Cellular functions of zebrafish NUP98 were investigated in HeLa cells. nup98 expression and developmental functions in zebrafish embryos were investigated by whole-mount in situ hybridization and morpholino knockdown. RESULTS: Protein sequence of zebrafish nup98 shared 65% identity with its human homolog. Ectopic expression of zebrafish nup98 rescued the defective messenger RNA export due to human NUP98 knockdown in HeLa cells. In zebrafish embryos, nup98 was expressed diffusely in eyes and the developing brain since 18 hours postfertilization. Knockdown of nup98 with morpholino upregulated pu.1 expression by 39% ± 15% (p = 0.0153) and scl expression by 36% ± 7.6% (p = 0.0017). Expression of genes associated with erythropoiesis was unchanged. The morphants also developed intracranial hemorrhage at 48 hours postfertilization due to defective blood vessel development. CONCLUSIONS: A novel zebrafish nup98 was identified and it serves a role in nucleocytoplasmic trafficking similar to human NUP98. During development, it modulates hematopoietic stem cell and early myeloid development and maintains the integrity of cranial vasculature in the developing central nervous system.

Sequences and domain structures of mammalian, avian, amphibian and teleost tropoelastins: Clues to the evolutionary history of elastins.

Tropoelastin is the monomeric form of elastin, a polymeric extracellular matrix protein responsible for properties of extensibility and elastic recoil in connective tissues of most vertebrates. As an approach to investigate how sequence and structural characteristics of tropoelastin assist in polymeric assembly and account for the elastomeric properties of this polymer, and to better understand the evolutionary history of elastin, we have identified and characterized tropoelastins from frog (Xenopus tropicalis) and zebrafish (Danio rerio), comparing these to their mammalian and avian counterparts. Unlike other species, two tropoelastin genes were expressed in zebrafish. All tropoelastins shared a predominant and characteristic alternating domain arrangement, as well as the fundamental crosslinking sequence motifs. However, zebrafish and frog tropoelastins had several unusual characteristics, including increased exon numbers and protein molecular weights, and decreased hydropathies. For all tropoelastins there was evidence of evolutionary expansion of the proteins by extensive replication of a hydrophobic-crosslinking exon pair. This was particularly apparent for zebrafish and frog tropoelastin genes, where remnants of sequence similarity were also seen in introns flanking the replicated exon pair. While overall alignment of mammalian, avian, frog and zebrafish tropoelastin sequences was not possible because of sequence variability, the C-terminal exon was well-conserved in all species. In addition, good sequence alignment was possible for several exons just upstream of the putative region of replication, suggesting that these conserved domains may represent 'primordial' core sequences present in the ancestral sequence common to all tropoelastins and in some way essential to the structure/function of elastin.