TY - JOUR
T1 - Heme metabolism enzymes are dynamically expressed during Xenopus embryonic development
AU - Shi, Jianli
AU - Mei, Wenyan
AU - Yang, Jing
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - As the key component of many hemoproteins (heme-containing proteins), heme is involved in a broad range of biological processes. Enzymes required for heme biosynthesis and degradation pathways are evolutionarily conserved. While heme metabolism has been studied extensively, the expression of heme metabolism enzymes during development has not been described. Here, we report that all heme biosynthases and two heme oxygenases, which initiate heme degradation, are dynamically expressed during Xenopus embryonic development. All heme synthases, with the exception of aminolevulinic acid synthase 2, are maternally expressed. At neurula stage, heme synthases are expressed in the developing neural tissue and in migrating neural crest cells. At the swimming tadpole stage, expression of heme synthases can be detected in multiple lineages, including eyes, neural crest cells, developing central nervous system, ventral blood island, pronephron, and pronephric tubule. Similar to heme synthases, heme oxygenases are expressed maternally. Zygotic expression of heme oxygenases is mainly restricted to the developing neural and neural crest lineages. Unlike heme synthases, heme oxygenases are not expressed in the ventral blood island and are expressed at a very low level in the pronephron and pronephric tubule. This indicates that heme metabolism may play important roles during development.
AB - As the key component of many hemoproteins (heme-containing proteins), heme is involved in a broad range of biological processes. Enzymes required for heme biosynthesis and degradation pathways are evolutionarily conserved. While heme metabolism has been studied extensively, the expression of heme metabolism enzymes during development has not been described. Here, we report that all heme biosynthases and two heme oxygenases, which initiate heme degradation, are dynamically expressed during Xenopus embryonic development. All heme synthases, with the exception of aminolevulinic acid synthase 2, are maternally expressed. At neurula stage, heme synthases are expressed in the developing neural tissue and in migrating neural crest cells. At the swimming tadpole stage, expression of heme synthases can be detected in multiple lineages, including eyes, neural crest cells, developing central nervous system, ventral blood island, pronephron, and pronephric tubule. Similar to heme synthases, heme oxygenases are expressed maternally. Zygotic expression of heme oxygenases is mainly restricted to the developing neural and neural crest lineages. Unlike heme synthases, heme oxygenases are not expressed in the ventral blood island and are expressed at a very low level in the pronephron and pronephric tubule. This indicates that heme metabolism may play important roles during development.
KW - Development
KW - Heme oxygenases
KW - Heme synthases
KW - Xenopus
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=58349103345&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=58349103345&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.32604/biocell.2008.32.259
DO - 10.32604/biocell.2008.32.259
M3 - Article
C2 - 19181189
AN - SCOPUS:58349103345
SN - 0327-9545
VL - 32
SP - 259
EP - 263
JO - Biocell
JF - Biocell
IS - 3
ER -