Institut für Zoologie und Evolutionsforschung, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, Germany.
Dev Dyn. 2019 May;248(5):323-336. doi: 10.1002/dvdy.25. Epub 2019 Mar 28.
Fox genes are a large family of transcription factors that play diverse roles in the immune system, metabolism, cancer, cell cycle, and animal development. It has been shown that FoxN3 is indispensable for normal craniofacial development in the mouse and the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis. Morpholino-mediated knockdown of FoxN3 in X. laevis delays overall development of early tadpole stages and causes eye defects, the absence of some cranial nerve branches, and malformations of the cranial skeleton and some cranial muscles, while the skeleton, nerves and muscles of the trunk are unaffected.
We report a delay in heart morphogenesis, the absence of the interatrial septum, and a reduction and compaction of the ventricular trabeculation after knockdown of FoxN3 in X. laevis. Furthermore, we found malformations of the cucullaris and diaphragmatico-branchialis muscles, two head muscles that develop in the head/trunk interface of X. laevis.
FoxN3 is necessary for the development of the interatrial septum and trabeculae in the frog heart, as well as the cranial muscles developing in the head/trunk interface. This gives the first evidence for a dependence on the head myogenic program of the cucullaris muscle in an anuran species.
Fox 基因是一个庞大的转录因子家族，在免疫系统、代谢、癌症、细胞周期和动物发育中发挥着多样化的作用。已经证明，FoxN3 对于小鼠和非洲爪蟾（Xenopus laevis）的正常颅面发育是不可或缺的。利用 Morpholino 介导的 FoxN3 敲低会延迟早期蝌蚪阶段的整体发育，并导致眼睛缺陷、一些颅神经分支缺失、颅骨骼和一些颅肌肉畸形，而躯干的骨骼、神经和肌肉不受影响。
我们报告了在非洲爪蟾中敲低 FoxN3 后，心脏形态发生延迟、房间隔缺失以及心室小梁减少和致密化。此外，我们发现了 cucullaris 和膈肌肌的畸形，这是两种在非洲爪蟾头部/躯干交界处发育的头部肌肉。
FoxN3 对于青蛙心脏中的房间隔和小梁以及在头部/躯干交界处发育的颅面肌肉的发育是必要的。这为依赖头肌发生程序的 cucullaris 肌肉在无尾两栖动物物种中的作用提供了第一个证据。
