A defect in the mitochondrial protein Mpv17 underlies the transparent casper zebrafish.

The casper strain of zebrafish is widely used in studies ranging from cancer to neuroscience. casper offers the advantage of relative transparency throughout adulthood, making it particularly useful for in vivo imaging by epifluorescence, confocal, and light sheet microscopy. casper was developed by selective breeding of two previously described recessive pigment mutants: 1) nacre, which harbors an inactivating mutation of the mitfa gene, rendering the fish devoid of pigmented melanocytes; and 2) roy orbison, a mutant with a so-far unidentified genetic cause that lacks reflective iridophores.

Evolutionary analysis and expression of teleost Thy-1.

Thy-1 is a developmentally regulated, immunoglobulin superfamily member (IgSF), glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored cell surface glycoprotein expressed most strongly in neurons and lymphocytes. Thy-1 is expressed in all vertebrates and has been implicated in a variety of processes, including axon regeneration and transmembrane signaling, but its specific function remains elusive. A Thy-1-like molecule in teleost fish was recently identified, with evidence for its role in lipid-raft based signal transduction linked to optic nerve regeneration.

Zebrafish orthologs of human muscular dystrophy genes.

Background: Human muscular dystrophies are a heterogeneous group of genetic disorders which cause decreased muscle strength and often result in premature death. There is no known cure for muscular dystrophy, nor have all causative genes been identified. Recent work in the small vertebrate zebrafish Danio rerio suggests that mutation or misregulation of zebrafish dystrophy orthologs can also cause muscular degeneration phenotypes in fish.