Analysis of Pax6b function in pancreatic and enteroendocrine cells reveals both tissue-specific and common regulatory networks

The transcription factor Pax6 plays a crucial role for the differentiation of the endocrine cells in the pancreas and the intestine. Indeed, while endocrine cells are still generated in pax6 mutants, the proportion of the different endocrine cell types secreting distinct hormones is strongly affected in both the pancreas and the intestine of Pax6 mutants. To understand how Pax6 influence cell choice during cell differentiation, we analyzed the transcriptome of pancreatic and intestinal endocrine cells isolated from wild type as well as in pax6b-/- zebrafish embryos. These data show that enteroendocrine cells are closely related to the pancreatic endocrine cells and a large set of genes are regulated similarly in both tissues. Such data support the concept that the endocrine cells of the pancreas and of the intestine are phylogenetically related.
Besides this study, I will present briefly the characterization of the transcriptome of pancreatic progenitors isolated from wild type zebrafish embryos.