Gene Knockdown in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a Tool to Model Photoreceptor Diseases

Disturbances in the general mRNA metabolism have been recognized as a major defect in a growing number of hereditary human diseases. One prominent example of this disease group is retinitis pigmentosa (RP), characterized by selective loss of photoreceptor cells. RP can be caused by dominant mutations in key factors of the pre-mRNA processing spliceosome. In these cases, the complex events leading to the RP phenotype can only insufficiently be analyzed in animal knockout models due to the essential functions of splice factors. Furthermore knockout animals frequently miss the specific phenotypes caused by knockdown of the respective genes. Here we introduce the zebrafish Danio rerio as a valuable vertebrate model system to study RP and related diseases in knockdown case scenarios.