Genetics: Early Online, published on August 23, 2019 as 10.1534/genetics.119.302416 1 1 Maintenance of melanocyte stem cell quiescence by GABA-A signaling in larval 2 zebrafish 3 4 James R. Allen1*, James B. Skeath1, Stephen L. Johnson1† 5 6 1Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 7 63110, USA 8 9 *Corresponding Author 10 † Deceased 11 Dedication: This paper is dedicated to the late Dr. Stephen L. Johnson. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Copyright 2019. 2 1 2 3 Running Title: GABA-A inhibits zebrafish pigmentation 4 Key Words: GABA, melanocyte, GABA-A receptors, quiescence, zebrafish, 5 pigmentation, inhibition, CRISPR 6 Corresponding Author: 7 Department of Genetics, Room 6315 Scott McKinley Research Building, 4523 Clayton 8 Avenue, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, 63110 9 Ph: 314-362-05351, E-mail:
[email protected] 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 3 1 Abstract: 2 In larval zebrafish, melanocyte stem cells (MSCs) are quiescent, but can be recruited to 3 regenerate the larval pigment pattern following melanocyte ablation. Through 4 pharmacological experiments, we found that inhibition of GABA-A receptor function, 5 specifically the GABA-A rho subtype, induces excessive melanocyte production in larval 6 zebrafish. Conversely, pharmacological activation of GABA-A inhibited melanocyte 7 regeneration. We used CRISPR-Cas9 to generate two mutant alleles of gabrr1, a subtype 8 of GABA-A receptors. Both alleles exhibited robust melanocyte overproduction, while 9 conditional overexpression of gabrr1 inhibited larval melanocyte regeneration.