Parkin is protective against proteotoxic stress in a transgenic zebrafish model
PLoS One. 2010 Jul 30;5(7):e11783.
Authors/Editors: |
Fett ME Pilsl A Paquet D van Bebber F Haass C Schmid B Winklhofer KF |
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Publication Date: | 2010 |
Type of Publication: | Journal Article |
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We first cloned zebrafish parkin to compare its biochemical and functional aspects with that of human parkin. By using an antisense knockdown strategy we generated a zebrafish model of parkin deficiency (knockdown efficiency between 50% and 60%) and found that the transient knockdown of parkin does not cause morphological or behavioral alterations. Specifically, we did not observe a loss of dopaminergic neurons in parkin-deficient zebrafish. In addition, we established transgenic zebrafish lines stably expressing parkin by using a Gal4/UAS-based bidirectional expression system. While parkin-deficient zebrafish are more vulnerable to proteotoxicity, increased parkin expression protected transgenic zebrafish from cell death induced by proteotoxic stress.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Similarly to human parkin, zebrafish parkin is a stress-responsive protein which protects cells from stress-induced cell death. Our transgenic zebrafish model is a novel tool to characterize the protective capacity of parkin in vivo.