Dynamic expression of the vertebrate-specific protein Nucks during rodent embryonic development.

•Nucks expression increases during the initial stages of embryonic development.•In late development, Nucks is predominantly expressed in dorsal ganglia and muscle fibers.•Nucks expression correlates with the levels of Bax and activated caspase-3.•Nucks is upregulated during apoptosis of cerebellar granule neurons.•No transcript with close homology to the Nucks gene is present in invertebrates.