PUBLICATION

Zebrafish mutants calamity and catastrophe define critical pathways of gene-nutrient interactions in developmental copper metabolism

Authors
Madsen, E.C., and Gitlin, J.D.
ID
ZDB-PUB-081121-9
Date
2008
Source
PLoS Genetics   4(11): e1000261 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Gitlin, Jonathan D.
Keywords
Embryos, Zebrafish, Copper metabolism, Melanocytes, Micronutrient deficiencies, Melanin, Pigments, Phenotypes
MeSH Terms
  • Adenosine Triphosphatases/genetics
  • Adenosine Triphosphatases/metabolism
  • Alleles
  • Animals
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Copper/metabolism*
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/metabolism
  • Humans
  • Melanosomes/metabolism
  • Menkes Kinky Hair Syndrome/embryology
  • Menkes Kinky Hair Syndrome/genetics
  • Menkes Kinky Hair Syndrome/metabolism*
  • Mutation*
  • Phenotype
  • Protein Transport
  • Zebrafish/embryology*
  • Zebrafish/genetics*
  • Zebrafish/metabolism
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
PubMed
19008952 Full text @ PLoS Genet.
Abstract
Nutrient availability is an important environmental variable during development that has significant effects on the metabolism, health, and viability of an organism. To understand these interactions for the nutrient copper, we used a chemical genetic screen for zebrafish mutants sensitive to developmental copper deficiency. In this screen, we isolated two mutants that define subtleties of copper metabolism. The first contains a viable hypomorphic allele of atp7a and results in a loss of pigmentation when exposed to mild nutritional copper deficiency. This mutant displays incompletely penetrant skeletal defects affected by developmental copper availability. The second carries an inactivating mutation in the vacuolar ATPase that causes punctate melanocytes and embryonic lethality. This mutant, catastrophe, is sensitive to copper deprivation revealing overlap between ion metabolic pathways. Together, the two mutants illustrate the utility of chemical genetic screens in zebrafish to elucidate the interaction of nutrient availability and genetic polymorphisms in cellular metabolism.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping