Molecular and cellular determinants of motor asymmetry in zebrafish

Eric J. Horstick (), Yared Bayleyen and Harold A. Burgess ()
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Eric J. Horstick: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Yared Bayleyen: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Harold A. Burgess: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Asymmetries in motor behavior, such as human hand preference, are observed throughout bilateria. However, neural substrates and developmental signaling pathways that impose underlying functional lateralization on a broadly symmetric nervous system are unknown. Here we report that in the absence of over-riding visual information, zebrafish larvae show intrinsic lateralized motor behavior that is mediated by a cluster of 60 posterior tuberculum (PT) neurons in the forebrain. PT neurons impose motor bias via a projection through the habenular commissure. Acquisition of left/right identity is disrupted by heterozygous mutations in mosaic eyes and mindbomb, genes that regulate Notch signaling. These results define the neuronal substrate for motor asymmetry in a vertebrate and support the idea that haploinsufficiency for genes in a core developmental pathway destabilizes left/right identity.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14965-y

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