Neog, A. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2026

Apelin signaling controls neuroendocrine homeostasis via Atoh8-dependent transcriptional regulation

Apelin is a pleiotropic peptide hormone with established roles in cardiovascular function, angiogenesis, and metabolism, but its contribution to neuroendocrine development and function remains poorly understood. Here, using genetic loss-of-function and inducible gain-of-function approaches in zebrafish, we show that Apelin signaling is dosage-sensitive and required for normal development, reproductive capacity, and physiological homeostasis. Both apelin deficiency and apelin overexpression disrupted embryonic development and reduced adult lifespan, while exhibiting markedly reduced fertility in both sexes. Transcriptomic profiling revealed broad changes in neuroendocrine, hormonal, stress-response, and inflammatory genes with young adult mutant expression profiles resembling those of aged wild-type fish. Both loss and excess of Apelin also disrupted hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis development, reducing hypothalamic thyrotropin-releasing hormone-expressing cells, pituitary gonadotropic cell populations, and thyroid gland volume. Transcriptomic analyses identified atoh8, encoding a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, as a candidate effector of Apelin signaling. Apelin expression increased atoh8 expression during early embryogenesis, whereas atoh8 mRNA partially rescued developmental defects in apelin mutants, including hypothalamic and pituitary markers, and thyroid volume. Conversely, atoh8 crispants displayed thyroid and pituitary abnormalities, supporting a role for Atoh8 in neuroendocrine development. Together, these findings establish Apelin signaling as a dosage-sensitive regulator of zebrafish development and tissue homeostasis and identify Atoh8 as a functional downstream effector that partially mediates Apelin-dependent HPT axis formation. This work links peptide hormone signaling to neuroendocrine development and provides a framework for investigating its broader contributions to vertebrate physiology, reproduction and aging.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2026

Mesenchymal-derived neural progenitors underlie local insulin production and neuronal transdifferentiation during retina regeneration

In humans, retinal-neuron death, optic-nerve injuries, and associated neurodegenerative diseases, such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, often lead to permanent vision loss. While the capacity for regeneration is low in the human nervous system, including the retina, some non-mammalian vertebrate species, including zebrafish, are capable of endogenous neuronal regeneration after injury. Unlike mammals, zebrafish do not form a scar that inhibits axonal and neuronal regeneration after injury. Rather, they harbor neural progenitor and stem-cell populations allowing regeneration of entire parts of the nervous system and restoration of tissue integrity and function. In the zebrafish retina, cycling neural progenitor cells of the ciliary marginal zone and quiescent resident neural stem cells (the latter of which are also called Muller glial cells) participate in neuronal regeneration following different types of injury. In this study, we report the identification of a novel, additional cellular source participating in neuronal regeneration of neurons in the zebrafish retina after genetic ablation of retinal ganglion cells. Before injury, these progenitor cells express molecular markers of neural-crest-cell and/or fibroblast identity, such as sox10, pdgfrb, and eya2, while after neuronal ablation they also express proneural factors including the ascl1a and olig2 genes. Combining genetic ablation of neurons with photoconversion or Cre/Lox-dependent genetic lineage tracing of sox10-expressing cells, we demonstrated that these cells can differentiate into post-mitotic retinal neurons in the ganglion cell layer (GCL) in the absence of cell proliferation. We also showed, surprisingly, that this progenitor population locally produces insulin mRNA, and that insulin signaling is involved in the accumulation of mesenchymal-derived neural progenitors in the GCL and in their subsequent transdifferentiation into RGCs. This work reveals an unexpected and novel cellular mechanism of transdifferentiation, dependent on a neural-crest-derived mesenchymal cell population, participating in neuronal regeneration in the zebrafish retina. The discovery of this plastic cell population could potentially lead to new strategies to promote the formation of new neurons in the mammalian retina.

developmental biology↗