Zebrafish Hsp40 and Hsc70 genes are both induced during caudal fin regeneration.

We report the characterization of a zebrafish DnaJ-like protein, homologue to the human Hsp40 protein hdj1, that we named zf-Hsp40. We have studied its expression during fin regeneration and we show that zf-Hsp40 mRNA level is drastically increased in all ray segments beneath the regenerated part, or blastema, in response to caudal fin amputation. In order to investigate whether zf-Hsp40 is part of a stress response system after injury, we studied the expression of the zebrafish Hsc70 transcript. Our results show a correlation between the expression of the two transcripts.