Enhanced cell-specific ablation in zebrafish using a triple mutant of Escherichia coli nitroreductase.

ABSTRACT: Transgenic expression of bacterial nitroreductase (NTR) facilitates chemically-inducible targeted cell ablation. In zebrafish, the NTR system enables studies of cell function and cellular regeneration. Metronidazole (MTZ) has become the most commonly used prodrug substrate for eliciting cell loss in NTR-expressing transgenic zebrafish due to the cell-specific nature of its cytotoxic derivatives. Unfortunately, MTZ treatments required for effective cell ablation border toxic effects, and, thus, likely incur undesirable nonspecific effects. Here, we tested whether a triple mutant variant of NTR, previously shown to display improved activity in bacterial assays, can solve this issue by promoting cell ablation in zebrafish using reduced prodrug treatment regimens. We generated several compleme

SUBMITTER: Mathias JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3992008 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature