Impaired embryonic motility in dusp27 mutants reveals a developmental defect in myofibril structure.

An essential step in muscle fiber maturation is the assembly of highly ordered myofibrils that are required for contraction. Much remains unknown about the molecular mechanisms governing the formation of the contractile apparatus. We identified an early embryonic motility mutant in zebrafish caused by integration of a transgene into the pseudophosphatase dual specificity phosphatase 27 (dusp27) gene. dusp27 mutants exhibit near complete paralysis at embryonic and larval stages, producing extremely low levels of spontaneous coiling movements and a greatly diminished touch response. Loss of dusp27 does not prevent somitogenesis but results in severe disorganization of the contractile apparatus in muscle fibers. Sarcomeric structures in mutants are almost entirely absent and only rare triads are observed. These findings are the first to implicate a functional role of dusp27 as a gene required for myofiber maturation and provide an animal model for analyzing the mechanisms governing myofibril assembly.

Brain selective transgene expression in zebrafish using an NRSE derived motif.

Transgenic technologies enable the manipulation and observation of circuits controlling behavior by permitting expression of genetically encoded reporter genes in neurons. Frequently though, neuronal expression is accompanied by transgene expression in non-neuronal tissues, which may preclude key experimental manipulations, including assessment of the contribution of neurons to behavior by ablation. To better restrict transgene expression to the nervous system in zebrafish larvae, we have used DNA sequences derived from the neuron-restrictive silencing element (NRSE). We find that one such sequence, REx2, when used in conjunction with several basal promoters, robustly suppresses transgene expression in non-neuronal tissues. Both in transient transgenic experiments and in stable enhancer trap lines, suppression is achieved without compromising expression within the nervous system. Furthermore, in REx2 enhancer trap lines non-neuronal expression can be de-repressed by knocking down expression of the NRSE binding protein RE1-silencing transcription factor (Rest). In one line, we show that the resulting pattern of reporter gene expression coincides with that of the adjacent endogenous gene, hapln3. We demonstrate that three common basal promoters are susceptible to the effects of the REx2 element, suggesting that this method may be useful for confining expression from many other promoters to the nervous system. This technique enables neural specific targeting of reporter genes and thus will facilitate the use of transgenic methods to manipulate circuit function in freely behaving larvae.