Identification of the novel genes associated with vascular morphogenesis

血管形成有规律的时间进程，形成均匀的结构。然而，与血管形态发生相关的基因仍然很少被发现。为了解决这个问题，我们对etsrp/ETV2缺陷的斑马鱼胚胎进行了微阵列分析。结果，我们确定了165个通过沉默etsrp/ETV2表达上调1.5倍以上的基因。此外，我们利用ZFIN数据库对它们的表达模式进行了分析，以评估这些基因是否与颅骨和/或躯干血管形成相关，并筛选出11个在与血管形成相关的特定区域表达的基因。我们还对68个未获得精确表达模式的基因进行了原位杂交，并成功地展示了三种新的表达模式。我们现在正计划利用CRISPR/Cas9系统敲除这些基因，以分析它们在血管形成中的功能。

Vascular formation progressed with a regular time course to form a uniform structure. However the associated genes of vascular morphogenesis are still poorly uncovered. To address this issue, we performed microarray analysis of etsrp/etv2 deficient zebrafish embryos. As a result, we identified 165 genes that were up-regulated greater than 1.5 fold by silencing etsrp/etv2 expression. Furthermore, we analyzed their expression patterns to evaluate whether these genes were associated with the cranial and/or truncal vascular formation by in silico analysis using ZFIN database, and selected 11 genes which were expressed in the specific region associated with the vascular formation. We also performed in situ hybridization for 68 selected genes which precise expression patterns were not obtained, and succeeded to demonstrate three new expression patterns. We are now planning to knock out these genes using CRISPR/Cas9 system to analyze their function for the vascular formation.