Spatial and temporal expression of zebrafish glutathione peroxidase 4 a and b genes during early embryo development

• We analyzed the expression of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPx4) a and b genes.
• GPx4a was found to be zigotically expressed in the periderm covering the yolk cell after shield stage.
• GPx4b display dynamic stage specific localization in blastoderm cells and is excluded from the yolk cell during development.
• GPx4 displayed nuclear localization from 128-cell to 512-cell stages.
• GPx4b was located in the slow muscle fibers in the myotomes at 24 hour of development.

Antioxidant cellular mechanisms are essential for cell redox homeostasis during animal development and in adult life. Previous in situ hybridization analyses of antioxidant enzymes in zebrafish have indicated that they are ubiquitously expressed. However, spatial information about the protein distribution of these enzymes is not available. Zebrafish embryos are particularly suitable for this type of analysis due to their small size, transparency and fast development. The main objective of the present work was to analyze the spatial and temporal gene expression pattern of the two reported zebrafish glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPx4) genes during the first day of zebrafish embryo development. We found that the gpx4b gene shows maternal and zygotic gene expression in the embryo proper compared to gpx4a that showed zygotic gene expression in the periderm covering the yolk cell only. Following, we performed a GPx4 protein immunolocalization analysis during the first 24-h of development. The detection of this protein suggests that the antibody recognizes GPx4b in the embryo proper during the first 24 h of development and GPx4a at the periderm covering the yolk cell after 14-somite stage. Throughout early cleavages, GPx4 was located in blastomeres and was less abundant at the cleavage furrow. Later, from the 128-cell to 512-cell stages, GPx4 remained in the cytoplasm but gradually increased in the nuclei, beginning in marginal blastomeres and extending the nuclear localization to all blastomeres. During epiboly progression, GPx4b was found in blastoderm cells and was excluded from the yolk cell. After 24 h of development, GPx4b was present in the myotomes particularly in the slow muscle fibers, and was excluded from the myosepta. These results highlight the dynamics of the GPx4 localization pattern and suggest its potential participation in fundamental developmental processes.