Fishbones and Fractures

One bad fall and crack go your bones. But if you have an inherited Fragile Bone Disorder (FBD), even the smallest knock can cause a fracture. Checking whether certain genetic flaws are responsible for FBDs and the impact they have isn’t straightforward in humans due to our genetic diversity and ethical considerations. Researchers have, therefore, made it easier using zebrafish and a technique called crispant screening. They focused on genes previously identified in humans as associated with an FBD. Using a gene-editing technology called CRISPR/Cas9, they created zebrafish lacking these genes. Next, they used microscopy to analyse the skeletons of these mutant fish at different ages after staining their bones (pictured) or fluorescently tagging their bone cells. All mutant fish (middle, bottom) had deformed bones when compared with normal fish (top), with many showing fractures and fused bones. This shows the power of crispant screening in zebrafish to clarify which genes are responsible for FBDs.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by Sophie Debaenst and colleagues
• Center for Medical Genetics Ghent, Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), January 2025