Constarium
← Search

Omics · study · 2026

mitfa-Independent Melanocyte Progenitors are Highly Susceptible to GNAQ-induced Uveal Melanoma in Adult Zebrafish

Listed in NCBI GEO

Melanocytes reside in diverse microenvironments that influence their susceptibility to oncogenic transformation, however, studying rare melanoma subsets has been hindered by the lack of suitable animal models.

Description

We developed a primary, immune-competent zebrafish model to study uveal melanoma (UM), utilizing choroidal-targeted injection and electroporation of plasmids containing human GNAQQ209L and CRISPR/Cas9 cassettes for tumor suppressor gene deletion.

Single-cell transcriptional profiling of genetically identical eye- and skin-derived tumors revealed distinct oncogenic pathways, highlighting the importance of studying melanoma subtypes in their correct anatomical context. Additionally, we identified a population of tfec- and pax3a-expressing melanocyte progenitor cells in mitfa-deficient embryos and adult zebrafish eyes, which were highly susceptible to GNAQ-driven transformation.

Read the rest (1 more)

While previous studies have linked mitfa deficiency to accelerated UM onset, our findings suggest that an expanded progenitor population in mitfa-deficient animals drives this susceptibility. Our study establishes a critical role for MITF-independent melanocyte progenitors in UM pathogenesis.

Links

Where it is published

Documentation and papers

Topics

From keywords
Life Sciences
Inferred from text
Cancer 65%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
SourceKeyLast seenRaw
NCBI GEOGSE29667312 d agoJSON v1
FieldAssertionExtractorEvidence
access_levelsource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0
concepts[disease].local:disease:cancerenrichment · NCBI GEOkeyword-concept-rules@1.0.0title+description (65%)
concepts[field].local:field:life-sciencesmapping · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0
concepts[method].geo_series_type:expression-profiling-by-high-throughput-sequencingsource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/gdstype
concepts[organism].NCBITaxon:7955source · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/taxon
descriptionsource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/summary
publication_datesource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0
titlesource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/title