Prof. Peng Jinrong from college of animal sciences, Zhejiang University paid a visit to IHB on Oct 12, 2012

Prof. Peng Jinrong from college of animal sciences, Zhejiang University was invited to visit institute of Hydrobiology (IHB), Chinese Academy of Science and gave a lecture entitled “liver development in zebrafish” on October 12, 2012.

As a successful researcher in plant field, Prof. Peng firstly talked about his research experience in UK and Singapore and told the audience the reason why he turned to investigate animal model zebrafish from plant research. Then Prof. Peng introduced four magic words to achieve success: interests, perseverance, determination and luck. After the brief introduction of the background knowledge about the development of liver in mouse and zebrafish, Prof. Peng showed that zebrafish was a good model to investigate the vertebrate liver development. Through screening the ENU induced zebrafish mutant by checking the expression level of prox1, a marker gene specific expressed in liver of zebrafish embryos at 3 days post fertilization, Prof. Peng’s lab identified an gene named mipt as a key regulator in liver development. Mipt mutation in zebrafish embryos lost the expression of prox1 in liver and further study showed that mipt modulated the development of liver through bmp signal pathway.

Next, Prof. Peng shared a recent research progress in his lab, the Def (digestive organ expansion factor) mutant, whose major phynotype was the regression of digestive organs including liver and pancreas. In Def mutant embryos, multiple target genes of p53, a well known tumor suppressor, were up-regulated, while the transcriptional level of p53 was unaffected but its protein was more stable compared with wt embryos. Gene mapping results showed that Def encoded an novel protein, △113P53, an isoform of zebrafish P53, which lacked 113 amino acids at the N-terminal of wt P53. Further study indicated that △113P53 majorly located at nucleolus in single cell and could interact with P53 at its DNA binding domain. This interaction triggered the degradation of P53 through a way independent of ubiquitin pathway. These results were considered as one of the most significant scientific progresses related to P53 within the recent ten years.

Prof. Peng is honored as Cheung Kong Scholar of the Ministry of Education, and recipient of the National Science Foundation of Outstanding Young Scientists of China. His lab now focus on the development of zebrafish liver and a series of significant discoveries have been achieved.