Zebrafish as a model to study live mucus physiology

Dysfunctional mucus barriers can result in important pulmonary and gastrointestinal conditions, but model systems to study the underlying causes are largely missing. We identified and characterized five mucin homologues in zebrafish, and demonstrated a strategy for fluorescence labeling of one selected mucin. These tools can be used for in vivo experiments and in pharmacological and genetic screens to study the dynamics and mechanisms of mucosal physiology.National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Grant P30-ES002109)Johnson & Johnson. Corporate Office of Science and TechnologyNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant CA106416)Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research FundDavid H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT (Zebrafish Core Facility