Potassium Channel Tetramerisation Domain Containing Protein 8 (KCTD8)

Members of the KCTD family, related to murine Kctd8 which has been identified here as downstream of Brn3a and Nurr1, are asymmetrically expressed in the zebrafish habenula. The zebrafish neuropilin, Nrp1a, is also expressed asymmetrically and interacts with members of the Sema3 family to establish and refine asymmetrical habenulopeduncular projections, clearly employing some of the same molecular pathways used for FR axon guidance in mice. No lateral asymmetry in expression was observed for any of the habenula-enriched transcripts identified here by microarray or bioinformatic analysis, including Kctd8 and Nrp2, but the methods used here cannot rule out subtle differences in the extent or intensity of gene expression between the left and right habenulae.