Zebrafish articles from across Nature Portfolio

Cranial sutures separate neighboring skull bones but how osteogenic activity is controlled at cranial sutures remains unclear. Here, authors employ zebrafish to uncover the cellular and transcriptional basis of growth control during suture formation.

CRISPR base editors are limited by protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) sequences and specific editing windows. Here, authors developed ABE-Ultramax, a suite of adenine base editors with high efficiency, low indel rates, and flexible PAM requirements, enabling precise biallelic editing in zebrafish.

Differentiation of stem and progenitor cells is a highly regulated process. Here, the authors uncover miR-144 and its target Hmgn2 as the backbone of the genetic regulatory circuit that controls the terminal differentiation of erythrocytes in vertebrates.

An adequate immune response is necessary to promote heart regeneration. Here, the authors identified a link between antigen presentation, immune cells, and endocardial cells during the regenerative response to cardiac injury in the adult zebrafish.

Maturation of innate immune cells is a graded stereotypic process which is often conserved across species. Here authors label distinct neutrophil leukocyte developmental stages via generating combinations of transgenic zebrafish reporter strains, followed by transcriptome analysis of different neutrophil maturation stages and comparison to the gene expression profile of developing neutrophils from humans and mice.

An in vivo chemical screen has uncovered a potential role for a tryptophan metabolite in promoting host survival during bacterial infections through modulation of ionotropic glutamate receptors. Host-directed therapies for bacterial infections offer a largely untapped approach to treatment.

Embryogram allows stress measurements during migration of the lateral line primordium in zebrafish embryos.

Optogenetic and thermogenetic tools have been limited to applications for single-state control of cellular processes. A single-component optogenetic tool was found to act as both a temperature sensor and a photoreceptor, enabling multi-state control of developmental signaling.

How lymphatic vessels arise from veins is still poorly understood. A study reports the discovery of a ribosome biogenesis regulator Ddx21 as a previously unappreciated specific factor that is important for the first steps of lymphatic but not blood vessel development. The finding may lead to better strategies to selectively target lymphangiogenesis.

A new CRISPR/Cas9 method that can generate F0 mutant zebrafish has the potential to cut costs, spare time, and reduce animal use for researchers interested in screening loss-of-function alleles in vivo.