High impact information on eomesa

• During oogenesis, the eomes transcript becomes localized to the cortex of the oocyte [1].
• The same phenotypes are observed when a VP16-activator construct is injected into early embryos, indicating that eomes acts as a transcriptional activator [1].
• The T-box gene eomesodermin (eomes) has been implicated in mesoderm specification and patterning in both zebrafish and frog [2].
• Here, we describe an additional function for eomes in the control of morphogenesis [2].
• By 24 hpf eom and tbr1 are expressed in largely overlapping domains in the dorsal telencephalon, tbr1 is expressed in postmitotic cells whereas eomes is also expressed in proliferative ventricular zone cells [3].

Biological context of eomesa

• We show that Eomes is required for endogenous endoderm induction, acting via an essential binding site in the cas promoter [4].
• Conserved synteny between regions of the human and zebrafish genomes, gene organization and phylogenetic analysis all indicate that the zebrafish Eomes2 gene is a homologue of mammalian Eomes, as previously found for zebrafish Eomes1 [5].

Anatomical context of eomesa

• No information is available on the role of Eomes in the immune system of lower vertebrates to date, although developmental studies on Eomes (Eomes1) have been performed in zebrafish [5].
• However, strong expression of both Eomes mRNAs was detected in the leukocytes from the spleen, followed by those from body kidney and peripheral blood, with expression of Eomes1 always stronger than that of Eomes2 [5].
• Eomes is also expressed in CD8(+) T cells and NK cells [5].
• These results suggest that both Eomes genes are involved in the zebrafish immune response, particularly in lymphocyte function as has been found in mammals [5].

References