kcnj13 regulates pigment cell shapes in zebrafish and has diverged by 
cis-regulatory evolution between Danio species

Podobnik, Marco; Singh, Ajeet P.; Fu, Zhenqiang; Dooley, Christopher M.; Frohnhofer, Hans Georg; Firlej, Magdalena; Stednitz, Sarah J.; Elhabashy, Hadeer; Weyand, Simone; Weir, John R.; Lu, Jianguo; Nuesslein-Volhard, Christiane; Irion, Uwe

doi:10.1242/dev.201627

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kcnj13 regulates pigment cell shapes in zebrafish and has diverged by cis-regulatory evolution between Danio species

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Dooley, Christopher M.
Department Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Max Planck Society;
Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Podobnik, M., Singh, A. P., Fu, Z., Dooley, C. M., Frohnhofer, H. G., Firlej, M., et al. (2023). kcnj13 regulates pigment cell shapes in zebrafish and has diverged by cis-regulatory evolution between Danio species. DEVELOPMENT, 150(16): dev201627. doi:10.1242/dev.201627.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000D-E7D4-F

Abstract

Teleost fish of the genus Danio are excellent models to study the genetic and cellular bases of pigment pattern variation in vertebrates. The two sister species Danio rerio and Danio aesculapii show divergent patterns of horizontal stripes and vertical bars that are partly caused by the divergence of the potassium channel gene kcnj13. Here, we show that kcnj13 is required only in melanophores for interactions with xanthophores and iridophores, which cause location-specific pigment cell shapes and thereby influence colour pattern and contrast in D. rerio. Cis-regulatory rather than protein coding changes underlie kcnj13 divergence between the two Danio species. Our results suggest that homotypic and heterotypic interactions between the pigment cells and their shapes diverged between species by quantitative changes in kcnj13 expression during pigment pattern diversification.