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Updated: Apr 28, 2026
In Vivo Modeling of the Morbid Human Genome using Danio rerio
Published on: August 24, 2013
Mutant human FUS Is ubiquitously mislocalized and generates persistent stress granules in primary cultured transgenic
Jamie Rae Acosta1, Claire Goldsbury1, Claire Winnick2
1The Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; The Bosch Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Discipline of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Abstract:
FUS mutations can occur in familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (fALS), a neurodegenerative disease with cytoplasmic FUS inclusion bodies in motor neurons. To investigate FUS pathology, we generated transgenic zebrafish expressing GFP-tagged wild-type or fALS (R521C) human FUS. Cell cultures were made from these zebrafish and the subcellular localization of human FUS and the generation of stress granule (SG) inclusions examined in different cell types, including differentiated motor neurons. We demonstrate that mutant FUS is mislocalized from the nucleus to the cytosol to a similar extent in motor neurons and all other cell types. Both wild-type and R521C FUS localized to SGs in zebrafish cells, demonstrating an intrinsic ability of human FUS to accumulate in SGs irrespective of the presence of disease-associated mutations or specific cell type. However, elevation in relative cytosolic to nuclear FUS by the R521C mutation led to a significant increase in SG assembly and persistence within a sub population of vulnerable cells, although these cells were not selectively motor neurons.
