Rab11a-recycling endosomes function to regulate cell signaling during retinal neurogenesis in zebrafish

We report the transcriptional changes associated with inhibition of recycling endosome function within the developing zebrafish retina. Recycling endosome function was inhibited through transgenic expression of a Rab11a dominant negative protein within the developing retinal progenitor cells using UAS::mCherry-Rab11aS25N; vsx2::Gal4 transgenic zebrafish. Changes in gene expression, compared to vsx2:Gal4 controls were profiled through bulk RNA-sequencing experiments of dissected zebrafish retinas. Gene expression changes resulting from inhibition of recycling endosome function were then compared to experiments in which canonical signaling pathways were modulated, including activation of Notch-signaling (over-expression of the constitutively active Notch1a intracellular domain; UAS::myc-NICD1a; vsx2::Gal4), activation of Wnt-signaling (over-expression of Wnt2b; UAS::EGFP-Wnt2b;; vsx2::Gal4), activation of Hippo-signaling (over-expression of nuclear retained YapS87A; dRED::UAS::YapS87A; vsx2::Gal4), and inhibition of mTor signaling (through treatment of zebrafish embryos with Torrin). 60 pooled eyes from experimental or control embryos were pooled for one sample. RNA-sequencing experiments were performed in triplicate for each experimental condition.