A zebrafish gene trap line expresses GFP recapturing expression pattern of foxj1b

Foxj1 has been found to play an important role in cilia formation and function in vertebrates. The zebrafish or Xenopus genome expresses two Foxj1 genes, foxj1a/FoxJ1 and foxj1b/FoxJ1.2. In this study, we have generated a zebrafish transgenic line T2BGSZ10 by To l 2 transposon-based gene trapping approach. T2BGSZ10 transgenic fish carry an insertion of the transposon genome into the first intron of the foxj1b locus. This insertion results in GFP expression in the forebrain, otic vesicles, floorplate, pronephric ducts and other domains during embryogenesis, which recaptures the expression pattern of foxj1b. Although normal expression of foxj1b is dramatically reduced, T2BGSZ10 homozygous embryos develop normally and grow to adulthood without detectable defects, which may be due to the incomplete interruption of foxj1b expression. Nevertheless, this transgenic line may serve as a useful model for dynamic observation of GFP-labeled tissues and organs and for isolation of GFP-labeled cells.