Retroviral-mediated Insertional Mutagenesis in Zebrafish

Since the initial publication of this chapter in 2004, additional methodologies have been developed which could improve and/or complement the original retroviral-mediated insertional mutagenesis. Retroviral vectors have also been shown to be useful for goals other than mutagenesis. In addition, retroviral-mediated insertional mutagenesis has been applied to zebrafish for use in reverse genetics as well as forward screening. Finally, the insertional mutant collection described herein has been screened by a number of labs to find a host of mutants (with genes already identified) with developmental and/or growth defects affecting the eye, liver, skin, craniofacial skeleton, kidney, myeloid cells, hematopoietic stem cells, and axon pathfinding, as well as mutants with defects in the cell cycle or DNA damage response, altered aging properties, and modulated cardiac repolarization. The major complementary approaches and new uses of this technique include: