Issues

Summary: Zebrafish are a highly versatile and relevant organism for human disease modelling. This Editorial highlights the recent zebrafish research published in DMM.

Summary: Cardiac complications are common in systemic autoimmunity, and mouse models are essential for mechanistic and therapeutic studies. Here, the authors present a decision framework to facilitate model choice for selected cardiac phenotypes in systemic autoimmunity.

Summary: Acute exposure to 1,4-benzoquinone leads to lineage-specific hematotoxicity in zebrafish from embryonic stages to adulthood, resembling benzene-induced cytopenia and myeloid dysplasia in humans.

Summary: The SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complex is the most over-represented protein complex in the intellectual disability. Different components of this complex have distinct roles in development and function of memory-forming neurons in the Drosophila mushroom body.

Summary: FBXO11 is a candidate disease gene for otitis media in humans and the authors report that a bulla cavitation defect initiates otitis media in the Fbxo11^Jf/+ mouse model.

Editor's choice: Using an integrative approach encompassing intestinal organoid culture, proteomics, transcriptomics and protein-protein interaction networks, we list Paneth cell functions dependent on autophagy.

Summary: The zebrafish mpv17^−/− mutant shows a severe mitochondrial phenotype with ultrastructural alterations and oxidative phosphorylation impairment. The pyrimidine precursor orotic acid ameliorates mpv17^−/− phenotype and increases mitochondrial DNA content, linking the loss of Mpv17 to pyrimidine de novo synthesis.

Summary: Using a new reverse genetic screening method for zebrafish microglia development, involving automated image analysis, we identified that il34 facilitates yolk sac macrophage distribution to target organs, including the brain.

Summary: BCL-3 acts as a co-activator of β-catenin/TCF-mediated transcriptional activity, driving a stem-cell-like phenotype in colorectal cancer cells, with implications for tumour cell plasticity and therapeutic resistance.

Summary: A microLC/MS-MRM-based approach for simultaneous determination of endothelium-related biomarkers identified glycocalyx disruption, endothelial inflammation and increased endothelial permeability as important events in early pulmonary metastasis in a murine model of breast cancer metastasis.