Seni-Silva AC, Maleski ALA, Souza MM, Falcao MAP, Disner GR, Lopes-Ferreira M, Lima C. Natterin-like depletion by CRISPR/Cas9 impairs zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryonic development.
BMC Genomics 2022;
23:123. [PMID:
35151271 PMCID:
PMC8840632 DOI:
10.1186/s12864-022-08369-z]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
The Natterin protein family was first discovered in the venom of the medically significant fish Thalassophryne nattereri, and over the last decade natterin-like genes have been identified in various organisms, notably performing immune-related functions. Previous findings support natterin-like genes as effector defense molecules able to activate multiprotein complexes driving the host innate immune response, notably due to the pore-forming function of the aerolysin superfamily members. Herein, employing a combination of the CRISPR/Cas9 depletion system, phenotype-based screening, and morphometric methods, we evaluated the role of one family member, LOC795232, in the embryonic development of zebrafish since it might be implicated in multiple roles and characterization of the null mutant is central for analysis of gene activity.
Results
Multiple sequence alignment revealed that the candidate natterin-like has the highest similarity to zebrafish aep1, a putative and better characterized fish-specific defense molecule from the same family. Compared to other species, zebrafish have many natterin-like copies. Whole-mount in situ hybridization confirmed the knockout and mutant embryos exhibited epiboly delay, growth retardation, yolk sac and heart edema, absent or diminished swim bladder, spinal defects, small eyes and head, heart dysfunction, and behavioral impairment. As previously demonstrated, ribonucleoproteins composed of Cas9 and duplex guide RNAs are effective at inducing mutations in the F0 zebrafish.
Conclusions
The considerably high natterin-like copies in zebrafish compared to other species might be due to the teleost-specific whole genome duplication and followed by subfunctionalization or neofunctionalization. In the present work, we described some of the natterin-like features in the zebrafish development and infer that natterin-like proteins potentially contribute to the embryonary development and immune response.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-022-08369-z.
The Natterin family was discovered in the venom of the fish Thalassophryne nattereri.
The zebrafish genome encodes eleven natterin-like genes.
Natterin-like might be a novel fish-specific defense molecule.
Natterin-like proteins are thought to be pore-forming molecules.
Reverse genetic study and phenotypic characterization suggests natterin-like genes may have roles in zebrafish development.
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