Duplicated gelsolin family genes in zebrafish: a novel scinderin‐like gene ( <i>scinla</i> ) encodes the major corneal crystallin

ABSTRACT We have previously identified a gelsolin‐like protein (C/L‐gelsolin) as a corneal crystallin in zebrafish. Here we show by phylogenetic analysis that there are at least six genes encoding gelsolin‐like proteins based on their gelsolin domains in zebrafish: gsna and gsnb group with the vertebrate gelsolin gene, scina and scinb group with the scinderin (adseverin) gene, and scinla (C/L‐gelsolin) and scinlb are novel scinderin‐like genes. RT‐PCR showed that scinla, scinlb , and gsnb are preferentially expressed in the adult cornea whereas gsna is expressed to a similar extent in cornea, lens, brain, and heart; scina and scinb expression were detectable only in whole zebrafish and not in these adult tissues. Quantitative RT‐PCR and 2‐dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by MALDI/TOF mass spectroscopy confirmed high expression of β‐actin and scinla , moderate expression of scinlb , and very low expression of gsna and gsnb in the cornea. Finally, transgenic zebrafish carrying a green fluorescent protein reporter transgene driven by a 4 kb scinla promoter fragment showed expression in the cornea, snout, dorsal fin, and tail fin of 3‐day‐old zebrafish larvae. Our data suggest that scinla and scinlb are diverged paralogs of the vertebrate scinderin gene and show that scinla encodes the zebrafish corneal crystallin previously called C/L‐gelsolin.—Jia S., Omelchenko, M., Garland, D., Vasiliou, V., Kanungo, J., Spencer, M., Wolf, Y., Koonin, E., Piatigorsky J. Duplicated gelsolin family genes in zebrafish: a novel scinderin‐like gene (scinla) encodes the major corneal crystallin. FASEB J. 21, 3318–3328 (2007)