Abstract
The dorsal diencephalon (or epithalamus) of larval zebrafish displays distinct left-right asymmetries. The pineal complex consists of the pineal organ anlage and an unpaired, left-sided accessory organ - the parapineal. The neighboring brain nuclei, the left and right dorsal habenulae, show consistent differences in their size, density of neuropil and gene expression. Mutational analyses demonstrate a correlation between the left-right position of the parapineal and the laterality of the habenular nuclei. We show that selective ablation of the parapineal organ results in the loss of habenular asymmetry. The left-sided parapineal therefore influences the left-right identity of adjacent brain nuclei, indicating that laterality of the dorsal diencephalon arises in a step-wise fashion.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1059-1068 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Development |
Volume | 130 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2003 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Brain laterality
- Epiphysis
- Epithalamus
- Habenula
- Pineal organ
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Molecular Biology
- Developmental Biology