Characterization of zebrafish (Danio rerio) muscle ankyrin repeat proteins reveals their conserved response to endurance exercise

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 9; p. e0204312
• Main Authors: Boskovic, Srdjan, Marín-Juez, Rubén, Jasnic, Jovana, Reischauer, Sven, El Sammak, Hadil, Kojic, Ana, Faulkner, Georgine, Radojkovic, Dragica, Stainier, Didier Y R, Kojic, Snezana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 25.09.2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Ankyrin Repeat; Ankyrins; Biology and Life Sciences; Cardiac muscle; Cardiomyocytes; Cardiomyopathy; Connectin; Conservation; Danio rerio; Durability; Endurance; Evolutionary conservation; Experiments; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation; Genetic aspects; Genetic engineering; Heart failure; Humans; In vivo methods and tests; Laboratories; Low level; Mammals; Medicine and Health Sciences; Molecular biology; Muscle Proteins - chemistry; Muscle Proteins - genetics; Muscle Proteins - metabolism; Muscle, Skeletal - metabolism; Muscles; Musculoskeletal system; Mutation; Myocardium - metabolism; Oxidative stress; Phylogeny; Physical Conditioning, Animal; Physical training; Protein structure; Proteins; Regulators; Research and Analysis Methods; Rodents; Sequence Alignment; Skeletal muscle; Somites; Stress response; Stress, Physiological; Swimming; Synteny; Transcription; Zebrafish; Zebrafish - genetics; Zebrafish - metabolism; Zebrafish - physiology; Serbia; Germany
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204312

Muscle proteins with ankyrin repeats (MARPs) ANKRD1 and ANKRD2 are titin-associated proteins with a putative role as transcriptional co-regulators in striated muscle, involved in the cellular response to mechanical, oxidative and metabolic stress. Since many aspects of the biology of MARPs, particularly exact mechanisms of their action, in striated muscle are still elusive, research in this field will benefit from novel animal model system. Here we investigated the MARPs found in zebrafish for protein structure, evolutionary conservation, spatiotemporal expression profiles and response to increased muscle activity. Ankrd1 and Ankrd2 show overall moderate conservation at the protein level, more pronounced in the region of ankyrin repeats, motifs indispensable for their function. The two zebrafish genes, ankrd1a and ankrd1b, counterparts of mammalian ANKRD1/Ankrd1, have different expression profiles during first seven days of development. Mild increase of ankrd1a transcript levels was detected at 72 hpf (1.74±0.24 fold increase relative to 24 hpf time point), while ankrd1b expression was markedly upregulated from 24 hpf onward and peaked at 72 hpf (92.18±36.95 fold increase relative to 24 hpf time point). Spatially, they exhibited non-overlapping expression patterns during skeletal muscle development in trunk (ankrd1a) and tail (ankrd1b) somites. Expression of ankrd2 was barely detectable. Zebrafish MARPs, expressed at a relatively low level in adult striated muscle, were found to be responsive to endurance exercise training consisting of two bouts of 3 hours of forced swimming daily, for five consecutive days. Three hours after the last exercise bout, ankrd1a expression increased in cardiac muscle (6.19±5.05 fold change), while ankrd1b and ankrd2 were upregulated in skeletal muscle (1.97±1.05 and 1.84±0.58 fold change, respectively). This study provides the foundation to establish zebrafish as a novel in vivo model for further investigation of MARPs function in striated muscle.