Cell and Developmental Biology Commons^™

Wilms Tumor 1b Defines A Wound-Specific Sheath Cell Subpopulation Associated With Notochord Repair, Juan Carlos Lopez-Baez, Daniel J. Simpson, Laura Lleras Forero, Zhiqiang Zeng, Hannah Brunsdon, Angela Salzano, Alessandro Brombin, Cameron Wyatt, Witold Rybski, Leonie F A Huitema, Rodney M. Dale, Koichi Kawakami, Christoph Englert, Tamir Chandra, Stefan Schulte-Merker, Nicholas D. Hastie, E Elizabeth Patton

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Regenerative therapy for degenerative spine disorders requires the identification of cells that can slow down and possibly reverse degenerative processes. Here, we identify an unanticipated wound-specific notochord sheath cell subpopulation that expresses Wilms Tumor (WT) 1b following injury in zebrafish. We show that localized damage leads to Wt1b expression in sheath cells, and that wt1b⁺cells migrate into the wound to form a stopper-like structure, likely to maintain structural integrity. Wt1b⁺sheath cells are distinct in expressing cartilage and vacuolar genes, and in repressing a Wt1b-p53 transcriptional programme. At the wound, wt1b⁺and entpd5⁺ cells constitute …