Molecular cloning and expression of a smooth muscle-specific gene SM22alpha in zebrafish.

SM22alpha is a kind of 22-kDa protein which is exclusively expressed in smooth muscle containing tissues of the vertebrates. Here we report molecular cloning of a novel zebrafish SM22alpha gene. The full length of zebrafish SM22alpha cDNA is 1296bp and it encodes a polypeptide of 201 amino acids which shares 69.

[Whole amount in situ hybridization and transgene via microinjection in zebrafish].

Zebrafish is new model organism to study development of the vertebrate. In this report, we chose a fragment of gene GATA-1 which specifically expressed in zebrafish hematopoiesis system as probe to carry on whole amount in situ hybridization. Then we transported reporter gene driven by GATA-1 promoter into the embryos via microinjection approach and observed the spatial and temporal expression pattern of GFP.