The glucose-fructose oxidoreductase domain containing gene family (GFOD) is small and contains only two members in human (GFOD1 and GFOD2). Information about its function is scarce. As the name implies the proteins contain an enzyme-defining domain, however, if this is functional and has enzymatic activity remains to be shown. A single nucleotide polymorphism situated in an intron of GFOD1 was found to be associated with inattentive symptomology in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Further, in a large schizophrenia genome-wide association study the GFOD2 locus was found to be associated with the psychiatric condition. Until now, however, it is unclear what specific functions are associated with the two GFOD-family members, if they might be involved in neurodevelopment and how this may relate to the development of psychiatric disorders.

In order to gain first insights into the hypothesis that GFOD-family members are involved in brain development and/or function we performed RNA in situ hybridization on zebrafish (Danio rerio) tissues at different developmental stages. We found that both family members are expressed in the central nervous system at embryonic, larvae and adult stages. We were able to define subtle differences of expression of the two gfod genes and we showed that a subset of GABAergic neurons express gfod1. Taken together, we conclude that both gfod gene family members are expressed in overlapping as well as in distinct regions in the zebrafish central nervous system. Our data suggest that gfod1 and gfod2 are relevant both for the developing and adult zebrafish brain. This study paves the way for further functional analyses of this yet unexplored gene family.

包含葡萄糖-果糖氧化还原酶结构域的基因家族（GFOD）小，并且在人中仅包含两个成员（GFOD1和GFOD2）。关于其功能的信息很少。顾名思义，这些蛋白质包含一个酶定义域，但是，如果这是功能性的并且具有酶促活性，则有待证明。发现患有注意力缺陷多动障碍的患者中，位于ODOD1内含子中的单核苷酸多态性与注意力不集中的症状有关。此外，在大型精神分裂症全基因组关联研究中，GFOD2发现基因位点与精神疾病有关。但是，到目前为止，尚不清楚这两个GFOD家族成员与哪些特定功能有关，如果它们可能参与神经发育，以及这可能与精神疾病的发展有何关系。

为了初步了解GFOD家族成员参与大脑发育和/或功能的假说，我们在不同发育阶段对斑马鱼（Danio rerio）组织进行了RNA原位杂交。我们发现两个家庭成员在胚胎，幼虫和成年阶段均在中枢神经系统表达。我们能够定义两个gfod基因表达的微妙差异，并且我们发现GABA能神经元的一个亚群表达gfod1。两者合计，我们得出结论，两个gfod基因家族成员在斑马鱼中枢神经系统的重叠区域和不同区域中均表达。我们的数据表明gfod1和gfod2与发育中和成年斑马鱼的大脑有关。这项研究为该尚未探索的基因家族的进一步功能分析铺平了道路。