Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Background</jats:title>
<jats:p>
<jats:italic>Prox1</jats:italic>, the vertebrate homolog of <jats:italic>prospero</jats:italic> in <jats:italic>Drosophila melanogaster</jats:italic>, is a divergent homeogene that regulates cell proliferation, fate determination and differentiation during vertebrate embryonic development.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Results</jats:title>
<jats:p>Here we report that, in zebrafish, <jats:italic>prox1</jats:italic> is widely expressed in several districts of the Central Nervous System (CNS). Specifically, we evidenced <jats:italic>prox1</jats:italic> expression in a group of neurons, already positive for <jats:italic>otp1</jats:italic>, located in the hypothalamus at the level of the posterior tuberculum (PT). Prox1 knock-down determines the severe loss of hypothalamic catecholaminergic (CA) neurons, identified by tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression, and the synergistic <jats:italic>prox1/otp1</jats:italic> overexpression induces the appearance of hypothalamic supernumerary TH-positive neurons and ectopic TH-positive cells on the yolk epitelium.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>
<jats:sec>
<jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>
<jats:p>Our findings indicate that <jats:italic>prox1</jats:italic> activity is crucial for the proper development of the <jats:italic>otp1</jats:italic>-positive hypothalamic neuronal precursors to their terminal CA phenotype.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>