Potassium Channel-Associated Bioelectricity of the Dermomyotome Determines Fin Patterning in Zebrafish.

The roles of bioelectric signaling in developmental patterning remain largely unknown, although recent work has implicated bioelectric signals in cellular processes such as proliferation and migration. Here, we report a mutation in the inwardly rectifying potassium channel () gene, , that causes elongation of the fins in the zebrafish insertional mutant Dhi2059. A viral DNA insertion into the noncoding region of results in transient activation and ectopic expression of in the somite and dermomyotome, from which the fin ray progenitors originate.