Open AccessAnalysis of a conditional gene trap reveals that tbx5a is required for heart regeneration in zebrafish
Author(s) -
Viktorija Grajevskaja,
Diana Camerota,
Gianfranco Bellipanni,
Jorune Balciuniene,
Darius Balciunas
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0197293
Subject(s) - zebrafish , regeneration (biology) , biology , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , danio , trap (plumbing) , genetics , environmental engineering , engineering
The ability to conditionally inactivate genes is instrumental for fine genetic analysis of all biological processes, but is especially important for studies of biological events, such as regeneration, which occur late in ontogenesis or in adult life. We have constructed and tested a fully conditional gene trap vector, and used it to inactivate tbx5a in the cardiomyocytes of larval and adult zebrafish. We observe that loss of tbx5a function significantly impairs the ability of zebrafish hearts to regenerate after ventricular resection, indicating that Tbx5a plays an essential role in the transcriptional program of heart regeneration.