Assessment of autism zebrafish mutant models using a high-throughput larval phenotyping platform

Abstract

In recent years zebrafish have become commonly used as a model for studying human traits and disorders. Their small size, high fecundity, and rapid development allow for more high-throughput experiments compared to other vertebrate models. Given that zebrafish share >70% gene homologs with humans and their genomes can be readily edited using highly efficient CRISPR methods, we are now able to rapidly generate mutations impacting practically any gene of interest. Unfortunately, our ability to phenotype mutant larvae has not kept pace. To address this challenge, we have developed a protocol that obtains multiple phenotypic measurements from individual zebrafish larvae in an automated and parallel fashion, including morphological features (i.e., body length, eye area, and head size) and movement/behavior. By assaying wild-type zebrafish in a variety of conditions, we determined optimal parameters that avoid significant developmental defects or physical damage; these include morphological imaging of larvae at two time points (3 days post fertilization (dpf) and 5 dpf) coupled with motion tracking of behavior at 5 dpf. As a proof-of-principle, we tested our approach on two novel CRISPR-generated mutant zebrafish lines carrying predicted null-alleles of syngap1b and slc7a5, orthologs to two human genes implicated in autism-spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and epilepsy. Using our optimized high-throughput phenotyping protocol, we recapitulated previously published results from mouse and zebrafish models of these candidate genes. In summary, we describe a rapid parallel pipeline to characterize morphological and behavioral features of individual larvae in a robust and consistent fashion, thereby improving our ability to better identify genes important in human traits and disorders. AUTHOR SUMMARYZebrafish (Danio rerio) are a well-established model organism for the study of neurodevelopmental disorders. Due to their small size, fast reproduction, and genetic homology with humans, zebrafish have been widely used for characterizing and screening candidate genes for many disorders, including autism-spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and epilepsy. Although several studies have described the use of high-throughput morphological and behavioral assays, few combine multiple assays in a single zebrafish larva. Here, we optimized a platform to characterize morphometric features at two developmental time points in addition to behavioral traits of zebrafish larvae. We then used this approach to characterize two autism candidate genes (SYNGAP1 and SLC7A5) in two CRISPR-generated zebrafish null mutant models we developed in house. These data recapitulate previously published results related to enhanced seizure activity, while identifying additional defects not previously reported. We propose that our phenotyping platform represents a feasible method for maximizing the use of single zebrafish larvae in the characterization of additional mutants relevant to neurodevelopmental disorders.