The zebrafish grime mutant uncovers an evolutionarily conserved role for Tmem161b in the control of cardiac rhythm.

The establishment of cardiac function in the developing embryo is essential to ensure blood flow and, therefore, growth and survival of the animal. The molecular mechanisms controlling normal cardiac rhythm remain to be fully elucidated. From a forward genetic screen, we identified a unique mutant, grime, that displayed a specific cardiac arrhythmia phenotype. We show that loss-of-function mutations in tmem161b are responsible for the phenotype, identifying Tmem161b as a regulator of cardiac rhythm in zebrafish. To examine the evolutionary conservation of this function, we generated knockout mice for Tmem161b. Tmem161b knockout mice are neonatal lethal and cardiomyocytes exhibit arrhythmic calcium oscillations. Mechanistically, we find that Tmem161b is expressed at the cell membrane of excitable cells and live imaging shows it is required for action potential repolarization in the developing heart. Electrophysiology on isolated cardiomyocytes demonstrates that Tmem161b is essential to inhibit Ca2+ and K+ currents in cardiomyocytes. Importantly, Tmem161b haploinsufficiency leads to cardiac rhythm phenotypes, implicating it as a candidate gene in heritable cardiac arrhythmia. Overall, these data describe Tmem161b as a highly conserved regulator of cardiac rhythm that functions to modulate ion channel activity in zebrafish and mice.

Defining specific allergens for improved component-resolved diagnosis of shrimp allergy in adults.

Shrimp is one of the predominant causes of food allergy among adults, often presenting with severe reactions. Current in vitro diagnostics are based on quantification of patient specific-IgE (sIgE) to shrimp extract. Tropomyosin is the known major shrimp allergen, but IgE sensitisation to other allergens is poorly characterised. In this study, the binding of IgE to various shrimp allergens, additional to tropomyosin, was investigated using sera from 21 subjects who had clinical reactions to one or more shellfish species. Total shrimp-sIgE was quantified using ImmunoCAP, while allergen-sIgEs were quantified using immunoblotting and mass spectrometry, and immuno-PCR to recombinant shrimp tropomyosin. Sixty-two percent of subjects (13/21) were positive to shrimp by ImmunoCAP. IgE from 43% of subjects (9/21) bound tropomyosin, while an additional 29% of subjects (6/21) demonstrated IgE-binding solely to other shrimp allergens, including sarcoplasmic calcium-binding protein, arginine kinase and hemocyanin. Furthermore, IgE sensitisation to other shrimp allergens was demonstrated in 50% of subjects (4/8) who were ImmunoCAP negative. The lack of standardised shrimp allergens and inadequacy of current extracts for shrimp allergy diagnosis is highlighted by this study. Comprehensive knowledge of less studied allergens and their inclusion in component-resolved diagnostics will improve diagnostic accuracy, benefitting the wider population suffering from shellfish allergy.