Potassium Channel-Associated Bioelectricity of the Dermomyotome Determines Fin Patterning in Zebrafish.

The roles of bioelectric signaling in developmental patterning remain largely unknown, although recent work has implicated bioelectric signals in cellular processes such as proliferation and migration. Here, we report a mutation in the inwardly rectifying potassium channel () gene, , that causes elongation of the fins in the zebrafish insertional mutant Dhi2059. A viral DNA insertion into the noncoding region of results in transient activation and ectopic expression of in the somite and dermomyotome, from which the fin ray progenitors originate.

High-throughput selection of retrovirus producer cell lines leads to markedly improved efficiency of germ line-transmissible insertions in zebra fish.

Vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein G-pseudotyped mouse retroviral vectors have been used as mutagens for a large-scale insertional mutagenesis screen in the zebra fish. To reproducibly generate high-titer virus stocks, we devised a method for rapidly selecting cell lines that can yield high-titer viruses and isolated a producer cell line that yields virus at a high titer on zebra fish embryos. Virus produced from this line, designated GT virus, is nontoxic following injection of zebra fish blastulae and efficiently infects embryonic cells that give rise to the future germ line.