Functional Assessment of Disease-Associated Regulatory Variants In Vivo Using a Versatile Dual Colour Transgenesis Strategy in Zebrafish

Shipra Bhatia, Christopher T. Gordon, Robert Foster, Lucie Melin, Véronique Abadie, Geneviève Baujat, Marie-Paule Vazquez, Jeanne Amiel, Stanislas Lyonnet, Veronica van Heyningen, Dirk A. Kleinjan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Disruption of gene regulation by sequence variation in non-coding regions of the genome is now recognised as a significant cause of human disease and disease susceptibility. Sequence variants in cis-regulatory elements (CREs), the primary determinants of spatio-temporal gene regulation, can alter transcription factor binding sites. While technological advances have led to easy identification of disease-associated CRE variants, robust methods for discerning functional CRE variants from background variation are lacking. Here we describe an efficient dual-colour reporter transgenesis approach in zebrafish, simultaneously allowing detailed in vivo comparison of spatio-temporal differences in regulatory activity between putative CRE variants and assessment of altered transcription factor binding potential of the variant. We validate the method on known disease-associated elements regulating SHH, PAX6 and IRF6 and subsequently characterise novel, ultra-long-range SOX9 enhancers implicated in the craniofacial abnormality Pierre Robin Sequence. The method provides a highly cost-effective, fast and robust approach for simultaneously unravelling in a single assay whether, where and when in embryonic development a disease-associated CRE-variant is affecting its regulatory function.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere1005193
JournalPLoS Genetics
Volume11
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2015

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