Study the expression of pluripotency associated genes at the developmental stages of zebrafish embryos

Although pluripotency markers are well known in mammals, our knowledge concerning them is still shallow about fish and other aquatic organisms. In this regard, the expression of nanog oct4, sox2, klf4, lin28, c-myc genes considered as a core circuit of pluripotency in various organisms were investigated in different developmental embryonic stages of zebrafish Danio rerio, including morulla, mid-blastula, gastrula and segmentation with 71, 105.5, 310 and 684 degree/hour post fertilization, respectively. The results of quantitative gene expression using Real Time PCR techniques revealed that In mid-blastulla stage, the lin28 and klf4 had maximum significant expression but no significant expression was observed for oct4 and c-myc. In addition, maximum expression of sox2 gene, known as pluripotency key in mouse and human, were observed after gastrula stage in zebrafish. Moreover, nanog showed significant expression in morulla stage, but no difference was observed in the other stages. In conclusion, lin28, klf4, oct4 and c-myc markers could be considered as the most important pluripotency markers in zebrafish but the sox2 is probably involved in the differentiation process and It seems that nanog has other roles beyond maintaining pluripotency according to its expression pattern.