PUBLICATION

Understanding Idiopathic Scoliosis: A New Zebrafish School of Thought

Authors
Boswell, C.W., Ciruna, B.
ID
ZDB-PUB-170209-11
Date
2017
Source
Trends in genetics : TIG   33(3): 183-196 (Review)
Registered Authors
Ciruna, Brian
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Humans
  • Mutation
  • Scoliosis/genetics*
  • Scoliosis/physiopathology
  • Spine/physiopathology*
  • Zebrafish/genetics*
PubMed
28174019 Full text @ Trends Genet.
Abstract
Idiopathic scoliosis (IS) refers to a 3D rotation of the spine that occurs in the absence of underlying vertebral anomalies or obvious physiological defects. Despite affecting approximately 4% of the population, the etiology and pathogenesis of IS remain poorly understood, largely due to genetic heterogeneity and historical lack of appropriate developmental models. Recently, zebrafish has emerged as a powerful system for studying IS, owing to well-developed genetic resources and a natural susceptibility to spinal curvatures. Here, we summarize the utility of zebrafish as a genetic and biological model of IS, examine current faithful mutant IS models, and focus on their recent advances towards understanding core mechanisms governing both normal spine morphogenesis and the pathogenesis of IS-like spinal deformities.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping