Dipartimento di Morfologia, Biochimica, Fisiologia e Produzione Animale, Sezione di Morfologia, Università di Messina, Italy.
Brain Res. 2012 Mar 9;1442:9-14. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2012.01.021. Epub 2012 Jan 18.
The zebrafish pineal gland plays an important role in different physiological functions including the regulation of the circadian clock. In the fish pineal gland the pinealocytes are made up of different segments: outer segment, inner segment and basal pole. Particularly, in the outer segment the rhodopsin participates in the external environment light reception that represents the first biochemical step in the melatonin production. It is well known that the rhodopsin in the adult zebrafish is well expressed in the pineal gland but both the expression and the cellular localization of this protein during development remain still unclear. In this study using qRT-PCR, sequencing and immunohistochemistry the expression as well as the protein localization of the rhodopsin in the zebrafish from larval (10 dpf) to adult stage (90 dpf) were demonstrated. The rhodopsin mRNA expression presents a peak of expression at 10 dpf, a further reduction to 50 dpf before increasing again in the adult stage. Moreover, the cellular localization of the rhodopsin-like protein was always localized in the pinealocyte at all ages examined. Our results demonstrated the involvement of the rhodopsin in the zebrafish pineal gland physiology particularly in the light capture during the zebrafish lifespan.
斑马鱼的松果体在不同的生理功能中起着重要作用，包括对生物钟的调节。在鱼类的松果体中，松果体细胞由不同的节段组成：外节、内节和基底部。特别是在外节中，视蛋白参与外部环境光的接收，这是褪黑素产生的第一步生化反应。众所周知，成年斑马鱼的松果体中表达有很好的视蛋白，但这种蛋白质在发育过程中的表达和细胞定位仍然不清楚。在这项研究中，使用 qRT-PCR、测序和免疫组织化学技术，证明了视蛋白在斑马鱼从幼虫（10 天）到成鱼（90 天）阶段的表达和蛋白定位。视蛋白 mRNA 的表达在 10 天达到峰值，在 50 天再次减少，然后在成鱼阶段再次增加。此外，类视蛋白的细胞定位在所有检查的年龄始终定位于松果体细胞中。我们的结果表明，视蛋白参与了斑马鱼松果体的生理功能，特别是在斑马鱼整个生命周期中的光捕获过程。
