Fig. 1

LIS1 is highly conserved across species and is expressed in the developing zebrafish. (A) The LIS1 protein is highly conserved between vertebrate and invertebrate species. Two orthologs of LIS1 exist in the zebrafish, likely due to a whole genome duplication event. There is a 93% conservation of amino acid sequence between these two proteins and conservation between species is similar for each. Percent conserved amino acid identity between the listed species and zebrafish Lis1 orthologs are shown respectively in parentheses (Lis1a and Lis1b respectively). (B) Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis of lis1a expression in the developing zebrafish illustrates maternal expression of this transcript at 1hr. Expression levels decrease after 8 hpf and then reach a fairly steady-state level through early larval development. (C) Similarly, semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis of lis1b demonstrates maternal expression of this transcript with a decline in expression after 8 hpf. However, unlike lis1a, lis1b expression increases from 24 hpf to 72 hpf, in the early stages of larval development. A portion of β-actin was amplified in a multiplexed PCR reaction for both transcripts to serve as an internal control. In addition, a no RT (reverse transcriptase) control (last lane) was done for each using 24 hpf total RNA.