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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">102</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="index">urn:lsid:arphahub.com:pub:73abe0ce-d97c-5d7c-bee5-b8e6e6fe6a17</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title xml:lang="en">ARPHA Preprints</journal-title>
        <abbrev-journal-title xml:lang="en">preprints</abbrev-journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Pensoft Publishers</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.3897/arphapreprints.e62570</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">62570</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Research Article</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="biological_taxon">
          <subject>Chordata</subject>
          <subject>Pisces</subject>
          <subject>Vertebrata</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="scientific_subject">
          <subject>Genetics</subject>
          <subject>Molecular genetics</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="geological_era">
          <subject>Cenozoic</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="geographical_area">
          <subject>World</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Molecular characterization of the prostaglandin E receptor subtypes 2a and 4b and their expression patterns during embryogenesis in zebrafish</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group content-type="authors">
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Hong</surname>
            <given-names>Wu</given-names>
          </name>
          <email xlink:type="simple">smallskip@163.com</email>
          <uri content-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1912-1609</uri>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Yongjun</surname>
            <given-names>Han</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A2">2</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Hongbo</surname>
            <given-names>Chang</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A2">2</xref>
        </contrib>
      </contrib-group>
      <aff id="A1">
        <label>1</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou , China</addr-line>
        <institution>Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Zhengzhou</addr-line>
        <country>China</country>
      </aff>
      <aff id="A2">
        <label>2</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China</addr-line>
        <institution>Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Zhengzhou</addr-line>
        <country>China</country>
      </aff>
      <author-notes>
        <fn fn-type="corresp">
          <p>Corresponding author: Wu Hong (<email xlink:type="simple">smallskip@163.com</email>).</p>
        </fn>
        <fn fn-type="edited-by">
          <p>Academic editor: </p>
        </fn>
      </author-notes>
      <pub-date pub-type="collection">
        <year>2020</year>
      </pub-date>
      <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day>30</day>
        <month>12</month>
        <year>2020</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>1</volume>
      <uri content-type="arpha" xlink:href="http://openbiodiv.net/DA05D931-0371-5561-88F0-7B9406EDD043">DA05D931-0371-5561-88F0-7B9406EDD043</uri>
      <history>
        <date date-type="received">
          <day>29</day>
          <month>12</month>
          <year>2020</year>
        </date>
        <date date-type="accepted">
          <day>29</day>
          <month>12</month>
          <year>2020</year>
        </date>
      </history>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>Wu Hong, Han Yongjun, Chang Hongbo</copyright-statement>
        <license license-type="creative-commons-attribution" xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" xlink:type="simple">
          <license-p>This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract>
        <label>Abstract</label>
        <p align="justify">The molecular expression profiles of zebrafish <italic>ep</italic><italic>2a</italic> and <italic>ep</italic><italic>4b</italic> have not been defined to-date. Phylogenetic trees of EP2a and EP4b in zebrafish and other species revealed that human EP4 and zebrafish EP4b were more closely related than EP2a. Zebrafish EP2a is a 281 amino acid protein with high identity to that of human (43%), mouse (44%), rat (43%), dog (44%), cattle (41%), and chicken (41%). Zebrafish EP4b encoded a precursor of 497 amino acids with high amino acid identity to that of mammals, including human (57%), mouse (54%), rat (55%), dog (55%), cattle (56%), and chicken (54%). Whole-mount in situ hybridization revealed that <italic>ep</italic><italic>2a</italic> was robustly expressed in the anterior four somites at the 10-somites stages, but was absent in the somites at 19 hpf. It was observed again in the pronephric duct at 24 hpf, in the intermediate cell mass located in the trunk, and in the rostral blood island at 30 hpf. <italic>Ep</italic><italic>2a</italic> was also expressed in the notochord at 48 hpf. During somitogenesis, <italic>ep</italic><italic>4b</italic> was highly expressed in the eyes, somites, and the trunk neural crest. From 30 to 48 hpf, <italic>ep</italic><italic>4b</italic> could be detected in the posterior cardinal vein and the neighboring ICM. From these data, we conclude that <italic>ep</italic><italic>2a</italic> and <italic>ep</italic><italic>4b</italic> are conserved in vertebrates and that the presence of <italic>ep</italic><italic>2a</italic> and <italic>ep</italic><italic>4b</italic> transcripts during developmental stages infers their role during early zebrafish larval development. In addition, the variable expression of the two receptor isoforms was strongly suggestive of divergent roles of molecular regulation.</p>
      </abstract>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>
