Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

The microRNA-producing enzyme Dicer1 is essential for zebrafish development

Nature Genetics volume 35, pages 217–218 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are produced by the Dicer1 enzyme; the role of Dicer1 in vertebrate development is unknown. Here we report target-selected inactivation of the dicer1 gene in zebrafish. We observed an initial build-up of miRNA levels, produced by maternal Dicer1, in homozygous dicer1 mutants, but miRNA accumulation stopped after a few days. This resulted in developmental arrest around day 10. These results indicate that miRNA-producing Dicer1 is essential for vertebrate development.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Target-selected inactivation of the zebrafish dicer1 gene.
Figure 2: Dicer1 knockout and knockdown zebrafish undergo developmental arrest and have reduced levels of miRNAs.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Reinhart, B.J., Weinstein, E.G., Rhoades, M.W., Bartel, B. & Bartel, D.P. Genes Dev. 16, 1616–1626 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Reinhart, B.J. et al. Nature 403, 901–906 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Brennecke, J., Hipfner, D.R., Stark, A., Russell, R.B. & Cohen, S.M. Cell 113, 25–36 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Grishok, A. et al. Cell 106, 23–34 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hutvagner, G. et al. Science 293, 834–838 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ketting, R.F. et al. Genes Dev. 15, 2654–2659 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bernstein, E., Caudy, A.A., Hammond, S.M. & Hannon, G.J. Nature 409, 363–366 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Wienholds, E., Schulte-Merker, S., Walderich, B. & Plasterk, R.H. Science 297, 99–102 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Lim, L.P., Glasner, M.E., Yekta, S., Burge, C.B. & Bartel, D.P. Science 299, 1540 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Lagos-Quintana, M., Rauhut, R., Lendeckel, W. & Tuschl, T. Science 294, 853–858 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank M. Koster, J. Mudde, M. den Broeder and A. Keijser for help with finding of the Dicer mutants; the Sanger Centre for sequencing the BAC containing the dicer1 gene; and D. Jongejan-Zivkovic, M. Tijsterman and R. Ketting for discussions. This work is supported by a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific research (NWO).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Functional Genomics, Hubrecht Laboratory, Utrecht, 3584 CT, The Netherlands

    Erno Wienholds, Marco J Koudijs, Freek J M van Eeden, Edwin Cuppen & Ronald H A Plasterk

Authors
  1. Erno Wienholds
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marco J Koudijs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Freek J M van Eeden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Edwin Cuppen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ronald H A Plasterk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronald H A Plasterk.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wienholds, E., Koudijs, M., van Eeden, F. et al. The microRNA-producing enzyme Dicer1 is essential for zebrafish development. Nat Genet 35, 217–218 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1251

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1251

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing