Immunofluorescent biomarkers for distinguishing cell phenotypes in zebrafish somitogenesis and autonomous cellular oscillators.*

During zebrafish embryogenesis, coordinated genetic oscillations occur in a population of cells in the posterior-most tissues of the body axis, the tailbud and presomitic mesoderm (PSM), which will subdivide the embryonic body into morphological segments, called somites. It has been proved previously that single cells dispersed from tailbud will oscillate automatically. However, it remains unclear that which phenotype of the cells will present as autonomous oscillators. T-domain transcription factors Ntla and Tbx16 will both express in the period of somitogenesis but in different regions. Immunofluorescence experiments for both genes demonstrated the distribution of cells in different phenotypes in zebrafish embryo during somitogenesis. Comparison of immunofluorescence results for 5-somite stage embryos and high-somite stage embryos showed the change of PSM region. Combined with results for single-cell oscillation and statistical analysis, immunofluorescence for cell dispersals was able to tell the phenotypes of the oscillating cells.