The use of RNAi technologies for gene knockdown in zebrafish

Abstract

Despite being a popular and versatile model organism in which to study development and model disease, the use of zebrafish has been hampered by the lack of a reliable, stable and cost-effective method of gene knockdown. It is therefore not surprising that the discovery of RNAi as an exploitable method of post-transcriptional gene regulation has created a lot of excitement within the zebrafish research community. However, despite concerted efforts in the field, progress in the use of RNAi technologies in zebrafish has been extremely slow and a reliable means of RNAi-mediated gene knockdown remains elusive. The following reviews progress in the field to date, highlights the major pitfalls identified and suggests possible future directions.