PUBLICATION
Zebrafish knock-in lines enabling live visualization of extracellular matrix dynamics during development and regeneration
- Authors
- Shen, J., Jayadev, R., Gillotay, P., Ou, J., Rich, A., Zimmerman, M.L., Ando, K., Di Talia, S., Sherwood, D.R., Poss, K.D.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-260605-1
- Date
- 2026
- Source
- Development (Cambridge, England) : (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Ando, Kazunori, Di Talia, Stefano, Gillotay, Pierre, Ou, Jianhong, Poss, Kenneth D., Rich, Ashley, Shen, Jingwen, Zimmerman, Madi
- Keywords
- Extracellular matrix, Fusion protein knock-in, Protein dynamics, Tissue regeneration, Zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
- none
- PubMed
- 42240014 Full text @ Development
Citation
Shen, J., Jayadev, R., Gillotay, P., Ou, J., Rich, A., Zimmerman, M.L., Ando, K., Di Talia, S., Sherwood, D.R., Poss, K.D. (2026) Zebrafish knock-in lines enabling live visualization of extracellular matrix dynamics during development and regeneration. Development (Cambridge, England). :.
Abstract
Extracellular matrix (ECM) plays fundamental roles in animal development, regeneration, and disease. The difficulty of tagging endogenous matrix proteins in vertebrates has limited the understanding of ECM composition and dynamics in complex tissues. To visualize vertebrate ECM components, we tagged zebrafish Laminin, gamma 1 (Lamc1), Collagen, type I, alpha 2 (Col1a2), and Transforming growth factor, beta-induced (Tgfbi) using C-terminus in-fusion genome editing. Analysis of these knock-in lines revealed distinct expression of each protein in various tissues during development and regeneration. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching analysis further indicated that Lamc1 is stable in fin fold matrix but more dynamic in myoseptal matrix of developing zebrafish, while Col1a2 and Tgfbi are stable matrix components in myosepta. Strikingly, we found that Col1a2-mScarlet protein accumulates at the amputation plane during tailfin regeneration, where it remains concentrated for several days and distant from the regeneration blastema. This "foundation" region also displays a distinct transcriptome suggesting active and dedicated events at the base of the regenerating appendage. Our resource enables live capture of ECM dynamics that can identify new events in developing and regenerating zebrafish.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping