Midnolin maintains zebrafish body axis stability and a progressive neuromuscular regulatory cascade

Midnolin (midn) is a conserved protein implicated in proteasomal degradation, yet its in vivo physiological role remains unclear. In this study, we investigated midn function using a zebrafish knockout model. midn was enriched in the nervous system and somite muscles, with prominent localization in the brain primordium. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated midn deletion caused severe embryonic lethality (83.7% within 24 hpf) and increased apoptosis. Surviving mutants (14.6%) developed progressive body axis instability, including head tilting and abdominal asymmetry, with penetrance increasing from 8% at 4 mpf to 64% at 9 mpf. Adult mutants also exhibited reduced thigmotaxis and altered locomotor patterns. Transcriptomic profiling and scRNA-seq virtual knockout analysis identified muscle-associated lineages and programs as prominent sites of sensitivity to midn perturbation. Integrative analysis further suggested a candidate regulatory framework in which early changes in runx1, mafbb, and btg2 are associated with later dysregulation of neuromuscular junction -associated and muscle-structural genes, including robo3, cd81a, myog, and efemp2b. These findings demonstrate that midn is required for embryonic survival and long-term body axis stability, and implicate disrupted muscle-associated regulatory programs in midn-deficient phenotypes.