Abstract
Functional genomic studies in zebrafish frequently use synthetic oligonucleotides called morpholinos that block RNA splicing or translation. However, the constitutive activity of these reagents limits their experimental utility. We report here the synthesis of a photoactivatable morpholino targeting the no tail (ntl) gene. This caged reagent permits spatiotemporal gene regulation in vivo and the photochemical generation of functionally mosaic organisms.
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Acknowledgements
We thank B. Sharpless (Scripps Research Institute) for tris(benzyltriazolylmethyl)-amine ligand; M. Halpern (Carnegie Institution of Washington) for a standard ntl morpholino; S. Schulte-Merker (Netherlands Institute for Developmental Biology) and J. Smith (Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute) for anti-Ntl antibody; and A. Miyawaki (RIKEN Brain Science Institute) for Kaede complementary DNA. We also thank M. Halpern for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01 GM072600) and a Basil O'Connor Research Starter Award from the March of Dimes Foundation.
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Shestopalov, I., Sinha, S. & Chen, J. Light-controlled gene silencing in zebrafish embryos. Nat Chem Biol 3, 650–651 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2007.30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2007.30
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