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D Africa

Publications and source records attributed to D Africa.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Genetic control of adult pigment stripe development in zebrafish.

Adult zebrafish stripes are formed from stripes of gold iridophores alternating with stripes of black melanocytes lying beneath silver stripes. Analysis of defects in pigment pattern development caused by sparse (spa, rose (ros), and leopard (leo) single and double mutant combinations suggests that spa+ and ros+ functions are required for development of separate populations of pigment cells in the adult and that leo+ functions to control assembly of melanocytes into stripes. Thus, between 2 and 3 weeks of zebrafish development, spa-dependent melanocytes differentiate throughout the flank, followed by leo-dependent assembly of these cells into stripes. Beginning at 3 weeks of development, a distinct ros-dependent population of melanocytes differentiates in the stripe. Both early and late differentiating melanocytes then affect the formation of the silver stripes, ensuring registration of melanocyte and iridophore stripes.

Animals↗

Half-tetrad analysis in zebrafish: mapping the ros mutation and the centromere of linkage group I.

Analysis of meiotic tetrads is routinely used to determine genetic linkage in various fungi. Here we apply tetrad analysis to the study of genetic linkage in a vertebrate. The half-tetrad genotypes of gynogenetic diploid zebrafish produced by early-pressure (EP) treatment were used to investigate the linkage relationships of two recessive pigment pattern mutations, leopard (leo) and rose (ros). The results showed that ros is tightly linked to its centromere and leo maps 31 cM from its centromere. Analysis of half-tetrads segregating for ros and leo in repulsion revealed no homozygous ros individuals among 32 homozygous leo half-tetrads--i.e., a parental ditype (PD) to nonparental ditype (NPD) ratio of 32:0. This result shows that ros is linked to leo, a mutation previously mapped to Linkage Group I. Investigation of PCR-based DNA polymorphisms on Linkage Group I confirmed the location of ros near the centromere of this linkage group. We propose an efficient, generally useful method to assign new mutations to a linkage group in zebrafish by determining which of 25 polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based centromere markers shows a significant excess of PD to NPD in half-tetrad fish.

Animals↗

A genetic linkage map for the zebrafish.

To facilitate molecular genetic analysis of vertebrate development, haploid genetics was used to construct a recombination map for the zebrafish Danio (Brachydanio) rerio. The map consists of 401 random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) and 13 simple sequence repeats spaced at an average interval of 5.8 centimorgans. Strategies that exploit the advantages of haploid genetics and RAPD markers were developed that quickly mapped lethal and visible mutations and that placed cloned genes on the map. This map is useful for the position-based cloning of mutant genes, the characterization of chromosome rearrangements, and the investigation of evolution in vertebrate genomes.

Animals↗