Developmental defects in zebrafish for classification of EGF pathway inhibitors.

One of the major challenges when testing drug candidates targeted at a specific pathway in whole animals is the discrimination between specific effects and unwanted, off-target effects. Here we used the zebrafish to define several developmental defects caused by impairment of Egf signaling, a major pathway of interest in tumor biology. We inactivated Egf signaling by genetically blocking Egf expression or using specific inhibitors of the Egf receptor function.

Pax4 is not essential for beta-cell differentiation in zebrafish embryos but modulates alpha-cell generation by repressing arx gene expression.

Background: Genetic studies in mouse have demonstrated the crucial function of PAX4 in pancreatic cell differentiation. This transcription factor specifies β- and δ-cell fate at the expense of α-cell identity by repressing Arx gene expression and ectopic expression of PAX4 in α-cells is sufficient to convert them into β-cells. Surprisingly, no Pax4 orthologous gene can be found in chicken and Xenopus tropicalis raising the question of the function of pax4 gene in lower vertebrates such as in fish.