Date of Completion
2025
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Biology
Thesis Type
Honors College, College of Arts and Science Honors
First Advisor
Alicia Ebert
Keywords
DCBLD1, development, retina, zebrafish
Abstract
The orphan receptor DCBLD1 (Discoidin, Cub, and LCCL domain-containing receptor 1) is found in the plasma membrane of multiple tissue types in vertebrates. DCBLD1 is upregulated in tissues following vascular repair and tumor migration, but its specific function in nervous system development has not yet been determined. This study will delve into the effects on zebrafish development when the DCBLD1 protein is absent by analyzing the retina's cellular integrity compared to wildtype embryos. This will be done through the use of cell counts for different layers of the retina, total cell count, and retinal width. We hypothesized that the loss of DCBLD1 would lead to impaired retinal integrity visible through decreased cell counts in all cell layers and a visible phenotype. Characterizing the phenotype of the zebrafish retina at different points in development (2, 4, 6, and 8 days) will allow us to further the understanding on DCBLD1. From our study we concluded that DCBLD1 plays role in retinal development, specifically in the development of the photoreceptor layer as there was significantly reduced cell counts at 4, 6, and 8 days. We observed that there was not a drastic phenotype seen in DCBLD1, but there were cellular abnormalities noted in DCBLD1 mutants. This included increased retinal width at 4 dpf, decreased total cell count at 2 dpf and 6 dpf, with 4dpf trending towards decreased cells. DCBLD1 remains to be further investigated for its perceived role in photoreceptor proliferation leading to reduced eye size and potential underlying DCBLD2 compensatory mechanisms.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Malagic, Amina, "The phenotypic presentation of DCBLD1 in retinal development in zebrafish" (2025). UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses. 736.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/736
