A chemically inducible muscle ablation system for zebrafish

An effective method for tissue specific ablation in zebrafish is the nitroreductase/metronidazole system. Expressing bacterial nitroreductase (ntr) in the presence of nitroimidazole compounds causes apoptotic cell death, which can be useful for understanding many biological processes. However, this requires tissue specific expression of the ntr enzyme, and many tissues have yet to be targeted with transgenic lines that express ntr. We generated a transgenic zebrafish line expressing ntr in differentiated skeletal muscle. Treatment of embryos with metronidazole caused muscle specific cell ablation. We demonstrate this line can be used to monitor muscle regeneration in whole embryos and in transplanted transgenic cells. Summary statement