Suppression of apoptosis by bcl-2 overexpression in lymphoid cells of transgenic zebrafish

The zebrafish is an attractive vertebrate model for genetic studies of development, apoptosis, and cancer. Here we describe a transgenic zebrafish line in which T- and B-lymphoid cells express a fusion transgene that encodes the zebrafish bcl-2 protein fused to the enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP). Targeting EGFP-bcl-2 to the developing thymocytes of transgenic fish resulted in a 2.5-fold increase in thymocyte numbers and a 1.8-fold increase in GFP-labeled B cells in the kidney marrow. Fluorescent microscopic analysis of living rag2-EGFP-bcl-2 transgenic fish showed that their thymocytes were resistant to irradiation- and dexamethasone-induced apoptosis, when compared with control rag2-GFP transgenic zebrafish. To test the ability of bcl-2 to block irradiation-induced apoptosis in malignant cells, we compared the responsiveness of Myc-induced leukemias with and without EGFP-bcl-2 expression in living transgenic zebrafish. T-cell leukemias induced by the rag2-EGFP-Myc transgene were ablated by irradiation, whereas leukemias in double transgenic fish expressing both Myc and EGFP-bcl-2 were resistant to irradiation-induced apoptotic cell death. The forward genetic capacity of the zebrafish model system and the ability to monitor GFP-positive thymocytes in vivo make this an ideal transgenic line for modifier screens designed to identify genetic mutations or small molecules that modify bcl-2-mediated antiapoptotic pathways.