High impact information on zic1

• Zebrafish early gastrula ectodermal explants are specified to express the neural markers opl (zic1) and otx2, and this expression is prevented by BMP4 [1].
• Comparative analysis of a 229-kb medaka genomic region, containing the zic1 and zic4 genes, with Fugu, human, and mouse [2].
• Here zic1 marks cells that are distinct from the main adaxial somite portion, the future myomere. zic1 expression in the somites is expanded in swirl but reduced in shh injected embryos, suggesting these factors have opposing activity in dorsoventral patterning of the somites [3].
• Later, a growing mass of zic1 expressing cells occurs in a dorsal mesenchyme that eventually invades the dorsal fin fold, suggesting a somitic contribution to the dorsal fin mesenchyme [3].

Anatomical context of zic1

• During somitogenesis zic1 is expressed in the dorsal most part of the developing somites [3].

References