PUBLICATION

Fluorescent Transgenic Zebrafish Tg(nkx2.2a:mEGFP) Provides a Highly Sensitive Monitoring Tool for Neurotoxins

Authors
Zhang, X., and Gong, Z.
ID
ZDB-PUB-130221-12
Date
2013
Source
PLoS One   8(2): e55474 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Gong, Zhiyuan
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Acetaminophen
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Atenolol
  • Atrazine
  • Axons/drug effects
  • Central Nervous System/metabolism*
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/drug effects*
  • Ethanol
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins/genetics
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins/metabolism*
  • Hexachlorocyclohexane
  • Mefenamic Acid
  • Motor Neurons/drug effects*
  • Neurotoxins/toxicity*
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Toxicity Tests/methods*
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
23383332 Full text @ PLoS One
Abstract

Previously a standard toxicological test termed as DarT (Danio rerio Teratogenic assay) using wild type zebrafish embryos has been established and it is widely applied in toxicological and chemical screenings. As an increasing number of fluorescent transgenic zebrafish lines with specific fluorescent protein expression specifically expressed in different organs and tissues, we envision that the fluorescent markers may provide more sensitive endpoints for monitoring chemical induced phenotypical changes. Here we employed Tg(nkx2.2a:mEGFP) transgenic zebrafish which have GFP expression in the central nervous system to investigate its potential for screening neurotoxic chemicals. Five potential neurotoxins (acetaminophen, atenolol, atrazine, ethanol and lindane) and one neuroprotectant (mefenamic acid) were tested. We found that the GFP-labeled ventral axons from trunk motoneurons, which were easily observed in live fry and measured for quantification, were a highly sensitive to all of the five neurotoxins and the length of axons was significantly reduced in fry which looked normal based on DarT endpoints at low concentrations of neurotoxins. Compared to the most sensitive endpoints of DarT, ventral axon marker could improve the detection limit of these neurotoxins by about 10 fold. In contrast, there was no improvement for detection of the mefenamic acid compared to all DarT endpoints. Thus, ventral axon lengths provide a convenient and measureable marker specifically for neurotoxins. Our study may open a new avenue to use other fluorescent transgenic zebrafish embryos/fry to develop sensitive and specific toxicological tests for different categories of chemicals.

Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping