Zebrafish: an emerging model for hereditary muscle disease research / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

With the advances in molecular genetic techniques, especially next-generation sequencing technologies, genetic testing is now a widely applied procedure in diagnosing hereditary muscle diseases. However, there remain many challenges to assessing the pathogenicity of genetic variants, understanding disease pathogenesis, and developing therapeutic strategies in hereditary muscle diseases. The zebrafish model system is a powerful tool to address these issues, thanks to conserved vertebrate genetics, the ease of genetic manipulation, and various assessment approaches for muscle function. Given the limited use of zebrafish model organisms on muscle disease research in China, this article mainly focuses on the advantages, applications, and limitations of zebrafish as a model of hereditary muscle disease.