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Nitroreductase-mediated cell ablation in transgenic zebrafish embryos.

Author	Harshan Pisharath, Michael J Parsons
Citation Information	Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 546:133-43 (2009)
Keywords	Animals, Animals, Genetically Modified, Anti-Infective Agents, Apoptosis, DNA, Escherichia coli Proteins, Genetic Engineering, Green Fluorescent Proteins, Metronidazole, Microinjections, Microscopy, Confocal, Nitroreductases, Prodrugs, Recombinant Fusion Proteins, Zebrafish
Related Products	S7100
Pub Med ID	19378102

Prodrug dependent cell ablation is a method that allows inducible and spatially restricted cell destruction. We describe transgenic methods to express the Escherichia coli nfsB in a tissue restricted manner in the zebrafish. This bacterial gene encodes a nitroreductase (NTR) enzyme that can render prodrugs such as metronidazole (Met) cytotoxic. Using the expression of NTR fused to a fluorescent protein, one can simultaneously make cells susceptible to prodrug treatment and visualize cell ablation as it occurs.