Ftr82 Is Critical for Vascular Patterning during Zebrafish Development.

Cellular components and signaling pathways are required for the proper growth of blood vessels. Here, we report for the first time that a teleost-specific gene (, member 82) plays a critical role in vasculature during zebrafish development. To date, there has been no description of tripartite motif proteins (TRIM) in vascular development, and the role of is unknown. In this study, we found that mRNA is expressed during the development of vessels, and loss of by morpholino (MO) knockdown impairs the growth of intersegmental vessels (ISV) and caudal vein plexus (CVP), suggesting that plays a critical role in promoting ISV and CVP growth. We showed the specificity of MO by analyzing expression products and expressing mRNA to rescue morphants. We further showed that the knockdown of reduced ISV cell numbers, suggesting that the growth impairment of vessels is likely due to a decrease of cell proliferation and migration, but not cell death. In addition, loss of affects the expression of vascular markers, which is consistent with the defect of vascular growth. Finally, we showed that likely interacts with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and Notch signaling. Together, we identify teleost-specific as a vascular gene that plays an important role for vascular development in zebrafish.