Neural crest는 신경계의 발생과정에서 생긴 특정화된 외배엽으로서 말초신경계(peripheral nervous system)의 모든 sensory cells과 fibers, 자율신경계의 대부분의 peripheral cells, unipolar spinal ganglion cell, cranial sensory ganglia, peripheral nerve의 neurolemmal sheath cells, ganglia의 capsule cells, sympathetic ganglia, chromaffin cells, pigment cell 등이 분화한다. Fish의 경우는 melanin을 가지고 있는 melanophores, yellow pigment를 가지고 있는 xanthopores, reflecting platelets를 가지고 있는 iridophores등 3가지의 pigment-producing cell을 가지고 있다. 다양한 pigement들의 deposition, distribution에 의해 Fish와 amphibian에서 볼 수 있는 수많은 color와 pattern이 만들어지게 된다. Embryonic neural crest가 patterning을 연구하기에 아주 좋은 모델임에도 불구하고, choromatophores의 cell-signaling mechanism에 관한 연구는 거의 없는 실정이다. 본 연구에서는 melanosomes의 melanocyt로의 이동기작과 이들의 dentiritic processe를 밝히기 밝히기 위해 phosphorylaion assay와 투과형 전자 현미경(transmission electron microscope)등을 이용한 다양한 실험들을 토대로, Lithium에 의해 유도되는 morphological alteration에 IP cell signaling pathway에 의해 조절되는 단백질의 하나인 55-kDa단백질의 인산화가 중요한 역할을 함을 밝혔다.
The embryonic zebrafish (Danio rerio) is rapidly becoming an important model organism for studies of early events in vertebrate development. Neural crest-derived pigment cell precursors of the embryonic zebrafish give rise to melanophores, xanthophores, and/or iridophores. Cell-signaling mechanisms related to the development of pigmentation and pigment pattern formation remain obscure. In this study, zebrafish embryos were treated with various signaling-related molecules - LiCl (an inositol-phosphatase inhibitor), forskolin (a protein kinase-A activator), a combination of LiCl/forskolin, and LiCl/heparin (an IP3 inhibitor) in order to identify the mechanisms involved in pigmentation. LiCl treatment resulted in ultrastructural and morphological alterations of melanophores. To identify the possible proteins responsible for this ultrastructural and morphological change, phosphorylation patterns in vitro and in vivo were analyzed. LiCl and LiCl/forskolin treatment elicited dramatic increases in the phosphorylation of a 55-kDa protein which was inhibited by heparin treatment. LiCl treatment also induced phosphorylation of a 55-kDa protein in melanophores purified from adult zebrafish. Collectively these results suggest that a LiCl-induced 55-kDa phosphoprotein plays a role in melanophore morphology and ultrastructure and ultimately effects gross pigmentation.
