Fig. 1.

Homology and molecular phylogenetic analysis of thymosin family in vertebrates. (A) Molecular phylogenetic tree of human TB4 and the zebrafish thymosin family. (B) Multiple sequence alignment of human TB4 and zebrafish TB family members. (C) Multiple sequence alignment of the TB proteins of different species. The boxed sequences indicate the G-actin binding sites of TB family members. (D) Whole mount in situ hybridization of zTB4 was performed in zebrafish embryos from a zygote to 10 ss (a–d′) during zebrafish embryogenesis, as described in “Materials and Methods”. Lateral (b, c, d) and dorsal (c′, d′) views are shown. zTB4 expression was detected in the heart region from 20 hpf to 72 hpf (e′, f′, g; h′, i′ and j′: ventral view; e, f, g, h, i and j: lateral view) (E) Expression of zTB4 at 10 ss (d′) was detected throughout lateral plate mesoderm (LPM).