Rapid reverse genetics systems for Nothobranchius furzeri, a suitable model organism to study vertebrate aging

Sci Rep. 2022 Jul 8;12(1):11628. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-15972-3.

Abstract

The African turquoise killifish Nothobranchius furzeri (N. furzeri) is a useful model organism for studying aging, age-related diseases, and embryonic diapause. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene knockout and Tol2 transposon-mediated transgenesis in N. furzeri have been reported previously. However, these methods take time to generate knockout and transgenic fish. In addition, knock-in technology that inserts large DNA fragments as fluorescent reporter constructs into the target gene in N. furzeri has not yet been established. Here, we show that triple-target CRISPR-mediated single gene disruption efficiently produces whole-body biallelic knockout and enables the examination of gene function in the F0 generation. In addition, we developed a method for creating the knock-in reporter N. furzeri without crossing by optimizing the CRISPR/Cas9 system. These methods drastically reduce the duration of experiments, and we think that these advances will accelerate aging and developmental studies using N. furzeri.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

MeSH terms

  • Aging / genetics
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Cyprinodontiformes* / genetics
  • Gene Transfer Techniques
  • Reverse Genetics*