zfishbook: connecting you to a world of zebrafish revertible mutants

zfishbook is an internet-based openly accessible database of revertible protein trap gene-breaking transposon (GBT) insertional mutants in the zebrafish, Danio rerio. In these lines, a monomeric red fluorescent protein (mRFP) is encoded by an artificial 3' exon, resulting in a translational fusion to endogenous loci. The natural transparency of the zebrafish embryo and larvae greatly facilitates the expression annotation of tagged loci using new capillary-based SCORE imaging methods. Molecular annotation of each line is facilitated by cloning methods such as 5'-Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends (RACE) and inverse polymerase chain reaction (PCR). zfishbook (http://zfishbook.org) represents a central hub for molecular, expression and mutational information about GBT lines from the International Zebrafish Protein Trap Consortium (IZPTC) that includes researchers from around the globe. zfishbook is open to community-wide contributions including expression and functional annotation. zfishbook also represents a central location for information on how to obtain these lines from diverse members of the IZPTC and integration within other zebrafish community databases including Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN), Ensembl and National Center for Biotechnology Information.