Analysis of transgenic zebrafish expressing the Lenz-Majewski syndrome gene PTDSS1 in skeletal cell lineages

Background: Lenz-Majewski syndrome (LMS) is characterized by osteosclerosis and hyperostosis of skull, vertebrae and tubular bones as well as craniofacial, dental, cutaneous, and digit abnormalities. We previously found that LMS is caused by de novo dominant missense mutations in the  PTDSS1 gene, which encodes phosphatidylserine synthase 1 (PSS1), an enzyme that catalyses the conversion of phosphatidylcholine to phosphatidylserine. The mutations causing LMS result in a gain-of-function, leading to increased enzyme activity and blocking end-product inhibition of PSS1. Methods: Here, we have used transpose-mediated transgenesis to attempt to stably express wild-type and mutant forms of human PTDSS1 ubiquitously or specifically in chondrocytes, osteoblasts or osteoclasts in zebrafish. Results: We report multiple genomic integration sites for each of 8 different transgenes. While we confirmed that the ubiquitously driven transgene constructs were functional in terms of driving gene expression following transient transfection in HeLa cells, and that all lines exhibited expression of a heart-specific cistron within the transgene, we failed to detect PTDSS1 gene expression at either the RNA or protein levels in zebrafish. All wild-type and mutant transgenic lines of zebrafish exhibited mild scoliosis with variable incomplete penetrance which was never observed in non-transgenic animals. Conclusions: Collectively the data suggest that the transgenes are silenced, that animals with integrations that escape silencing are not viable, or that other technical factors prevent transgene expression. In conclusion, the incomplete penetrance of the phenotype and the lack of a matched transgenic control model precludes further meaningful investigations of these transgenic lines.