Six3, a medaka homologue of the Drosophila homeobox gene sine oculis is expressed in the anterior embryonic shield and the developing eye.

The conserved transcription factor Pax6 is essential for eye development in Drosophila and mammals (Hill, R.E., Favor, J., Hogan, B.L.M., Ton, C.C.T., Saunders, G.F., Hanson, I.M., Prosser, J., Jordan, T., Hastie, N.D., van Heyningen, V., 1991. Mouse small eye results from mutations in a paired-like homeobox containing gene. Nature 354, 522-525; Ton, C., Hirvonen, H., Miwa, H., Weil, M., Monaghan, P., Jordan, T., van Heyningen, V., Hastie, N., Meijers-Heijboer, H., Drechsler, M., Royer-Pokora, B., Collins, F., Swaroop, A., Strong, L.C., Saunders, G.F., 1991. Positional cloning and characterization of a paired box- and homeobox-containing gene from the aniridia region. Cell 6, 1059-1074; Matsuo, T., Osumi-Yamashita, N., Noji, S., Ohuchi, H., Koyama, E., Myokai, F., Matsuo, N., Toniguchi, S., Dari, H., Jseki, S., Ninomiya, Y., Fujiwara, M., Watanabe, T., Eto, K., 1993. A mutation at the Pax-6 gene in rat small eye is associated with impaired migration of midbrain crest cells. Nature genet. 3, 299-304; Quiring, R., Walldorf, U., Kloter, U., Gehring, W.J., 1994. Homology of the eyeless gene of Drosophila to the small eye gene in mice and aniridia in humans. Science 265, 785-789). These findings led to the hypothesis that additional genes involved in invertebrate and vertebrate eye development are structurally and functionally conserved (Halder, G., Callaerts, P., Gehring, W.J., 1995. New perspectives on eye evolution. Curr. Opin. Gen. Dev. 5, 602-609; Quiring, R., Walldorf, U., Kloter, U., Gehring, W.J., 1994. Homology of the eyeless gene of Drosophila to the small eye gene in mice and aniridia in humans. Science 265, 785-789). Candidates for such conserved genes are the Drosophila homeobox gene sine oculis (Cheyette, B.N.R., Green, P.J., Martin, K., Garren, H., Hartenstein, V., Zipursky, S.L., 1994. The Drosophila sine oculis locus encodes a homeodomain-containing protein required for the development of the entire visual system. Neuron l2, 977-996) and its murine homologue Six3 (Oliver, G., Mailhos, A., Wehr, R., Copeland, N.G., Jenkins, N.A., Gruss, P., 1995. Six3, a murine homologue of the sine oculis gene, demarcates the most anterior border of the developing neural plate and is expressed during eye development. Development 121, 4045-4055). sine oculis (so) is essential for the development of the larval and adult visual system (Cheyette, B.N.R., Green, P.J., Martin, K., Garren, H., Hartenstein, V., Zipursky, S.L., 1994. The Drosophila sine oculis locus encodes a homeodomain-containing protein required for the development of the entire visual system. Neuron l2, 977-996). Six3 is expressed in the anterior neural plate and optic vesicles, lens, olfactory placodes and ventral forebrain (Oliver, G., Mailhos, A., Wehr, R., Copeland, N.G., Jenkins, N.A., Gruss, P., 1995. Six3, a murine homologue of the sine oculis gene, demarcates the most anterior border of the developing neural plate and is expressed during eye development. Development 121, 4045-4055). Overexpression of mouse Six3 gene in medaka fish embryos (Orvzias latipes) results in the formation of an ectopic lens, indicating that Six3 activity can trigger the genetic pathway leading to lens formation (Oliver, G., Loosli, F., Koster, R., Wittbrodt, J., Gruss, P., 1996. Ectopic lens induction in fish in response to the murine homeobox gene Six3. Mech. Dev. 60, 233-239). We isolated the medaka Six3 homologue and analyzed its expression pattern in the medaka embryo. It is expressed initially in the anterior embryonic shield and later in the developing eye and prosencephalon. The early localized expression of Six3 suggests a role in the regionalization of the rostral head.