Site-directed zebrafish transgenesis into single landing sites with the phiC31 integrase system
- Authors
- Mosimann, C., Puller, A.C., Lawson, K.L., Tschopp, P., Amsterdam, A., and Zon, L.I.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-130708-38
- Date
- 2013
- Source
- Developmental Dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists 242(8): 949-63 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Amsterdam, Adam, Mosimann, Christian, Zon, Leonard I.
- Keywords
- zebrafish, phiC31, transgenesis, genetics
- MeSH Terms
-
- Gene Transfer Techniques*
- Integrases/genetics*
- Animals, Genetically Modified
- Animals
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics*
- PubMed
- 23723152 Full text @ Dev. Dyn.
Background: Linear DNA-based and Tol2-mediated transgenesis are powerful tools for the generation of transgenic zebrafish. However, the integration of multiple copies or transgenes at random genomic locations complicates comparative transgene analysis and makes long-term transgene stability unpredictable with variable expression. Targeted, site-directed transgene integration into pre-determined genomic loci can circumvent these issues. The phiC31 integrase catalyzes the unidirectional recombination reaction between heterotypic attP and attB sites and is an efficient platform for site-directed transgenesis. Results: We report the implementation of the phiC31 integrase-mediated attP/attB recombination for site-directed zebrafish transgenics of attB-containing transgene vectors into single genomic attP landing sites. We generated Tol2-based single-insertion attP transgenic lines and established their performance in phiC31 integrase-catalyzed integration of an attB-containing transgene vector. We found stable germline transmission into the next generation of an attB reporter transgene in 34% of all tested animals. We further characterized two functional attP landing site lines and determined their genomic location. Our experiments also demonstrate tissue-specific transgene applications as well as long-term stability of phiC31-mediated transgenes. Conclusions: Our results establish phiC31 integrase-controlled site-directed transgenesis into single, genomic attP sites as space-, time-, and labor-efficient zebrafish transgenesis technique. The described reagents are available for distribution to the zebrafish community.