FIGURE 4.
Alteration of apoptotic/anti-apoptotic signaling by heat-killed E. coli treatment. Exposure of juvenile zebrafish to an intermediate concentration (5 × 106 cfu/ml) of heat-killed E. coli was performed between 15 and 35 dpf. Gonads were dissected at 35 dpf. After RNA extraction, microarray was used to evaluate apoptotic and anti-apoptotic gene expression in individual gonads. Several critical apoptotic genes were suppressed (cflar, dedd1, pycard, bnip3l, and smac), whereas anti-apoptotic (bcl2l10, aatf, api5, and mcl1a) and NF-κB-target genes (birc5a and birc5b) were up-regulated.