Copper-induced delayed hatching and dysfunctional movement had been reported previously, and unbalanced free copper was found in the body of humans with Alzheimer’s disease and other neural diseases, but details of the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. In this study, zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos exposed to over 3.9μM of copper exhibited delayed hatching and significantly dysfunctional movement. Using high-throughput in situ hybridization screening and by conducting an in-depth analysis of gene characterization in embryos exposed to copper, we found that copper caused neural crest defects from the initiation stage of neurogenesis, and embryos younger than the 70% epiboly stage were sensitive to copper toxicity. The myelination of Schwann cells, other than melanophores, cartilage, and neurons, was inhibited by copper during neurogenesis. In addition, axon guidance was blocked by copper. Down-regulated cdx4-hox might have contributed to the neurogenesis-related defects. Moreover, copper inhibited the differentiation of muscle fibers and myotomes but not the specification of muscle progenitors. In summary, our data reveal a novel molecular mechanism for copper-inhibited locomotor behavior in embryos, in which copper blocks functional muscle fiber specification during myogenesis and inhibits the specification of axons and Schwann cell myelination during neurogenesis. A combination of these processes results in dysfunctional locomotor behavior in zebrafish embryos exposed to copper.

Background: Sturgeon cultivation is important for both industry and aquaculture in China. To date, more than 17 species or strains have been farmed for fillets and caviar production. Crossbreeding among different sturgeon species is frequent and the F2 hybrids are fertile. However, large-scale farming can have negative impacts on wild populations i.e. escape of exotic sturgeons and must be taken into consideration. Escape of exotic sturgeons can cause severe ecological problems, including threatening native sturgeon species once the exotic varieties become established or hybridize with native individuals. However, little is known about their genetic resources and variation. Methods: Genetic diversity and introgression of seven sturgeon species were analyzed using mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase subunit I ( COI ) and nine microsatellite markers. This study included 189 individuals from seven sturgeon species and 277 individuals from ten lineages of F2 hybrid strains. Results: MtDNA COI sequences (632 bp long) were generated from 91 individuals across the 17 sturgeon strains and produced 23 different haplotypes. Haplotype diversity was high (h = 0.915 ± 0.015) and nucleotide diversity was low (π = 0.03680 ± 0.00153) in the seven sturgeon species and ten interspecific hybrids. Phylogenetic analyses resulted in almost identical tree topologies, and different haplotype structures were mainly related with sturgeons of different female parents. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that 81.73% of the genetic variance was due to matrilineal differences, while 9.40% resulted from strain variation. Pairwise Fst values obtained with POLYSAT software, were high among strains and ranged from 0.031 to 0.164. Admixture analysis assigned seven distinct groups and ten genotypes of admixed clusters composed of hybrid strains using STRUCTURE when assuming K = 7. Conclusions: The interspecific mtDNA gene tree corresponded to the expected taxonomic divisions. These relationships were also supported by the results from the microsatellite analysis and contributed to unambiguously identify seven sturgeon species and ten F2 hybrid strains from sturgeon farms in China. Moreover, we found that introgressive hybridization is pervasive, exists in both purebred and hybrid sturgeons, and may reflect widespread mismanagement in sturgeon breeding in China.