Li Yu, Zhao TingTing, Liu Yun, Lin Haoran, Li Shuisheng, Zhang Yong
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Aquatic Economic Animals and Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Important Economic Fish, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Aquatic Economic Animals and Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Important Economic Fish, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266373, China; Southern Laboratory of Ocean Science and Engineering (Guangdong, Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519000, China.
Gen Comp Endocrinol. 2021 Sep 15;311:113839. doi: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2021.113839. Epub 2021 Jun 26.
Neurokinin B (NKB) plays a pivotal role in the regulation of reproduction in vertebrates. However, whether this neuropeptide is dispensable for reproduction in teleosts remains unknown. In order to reveal its authentic functions in fish, in this study, two tachykinin 3 (tac3) genes encoding Nkbs were functional mutated in zebrafish using the Transcription Activator-like Effector Nucleases (TALEN) technology. We established tac3a, tac3b and tac3a;tac3b mutant lines, and investigated their reproductive performance and ontogeny. According to our study, spermatogenesis and folliculogenesis were not impaired in tac3a, tac3b and tac3a;tac3b mutant lines, but changes in the expression of genes related to reproductive axis were observed after loss of Tac3, suggesting that possible compensatory response was activated to maintained the reproductive function in zebrafish. In summary, our results indicate that mutation of tac3 genes do not disrupt the reproduction in zebrafish unlike in mammals, revealing the plasticity of reproductive neuroendocrine system in the brain of zebrafish.
神经激肽B（NKB）在脊椎动物的生殖调节中起着关键作用。然而，这种神经肽在硬骨鱼的生殖过程中是否可有可无仍不清楚。为了揭示其在鱼类中的真实功能，在本研究中，利用转录激活样效应核酸酶（TALEN）技术在斑马鱼中对两个编码NKB的速激肽3（tac3）基因进行了功能突变。我们建立了tac3a、tac3b和tac3a;tac3b突变系，并研究了它们的生殖性能和个体发育。根据我们的研究，tac3a、tac3b和tac3a;tac3b突变系的精子发生和卵泡发生没有受到损害，但在Tac3缺失后观察到与生殖轴相关基因的表达变化，这表明可能激活了补偿反应以维持斑马鱼的生殖功能。总之，我们的结果表明，与哺乳动物不同，tac3基因的突变不会破坏斑马鱼的生殖，这揭示了斑马鱼大脑中生殖神经内分泌系统的可塑性。
