ZF_MrSol

Target selected mutagenesis, or TILLING (for targeting induced local lesions in genomes), is a proven method that allows mutations to be identified in virtually any gene. We have previously shown that capillary-sequencing can be used to effectively identify mutations in a high throughput manner. A library of Zebrafish non-sense alleles is being created by the Zebrafish Mutation Resource, each with an associated morphological and molecular phenotype. Phenotypic data will be published via ZFIN (using an adapted version of the Phenote database). Information about the mutations identified by the project can be found on our website: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Projects/D_rerio/mutres/. The advent of next generation sequencing technologies has significantly changed the amount of mutations that can be identified. We are now investigating the use of sequence capture (rather than PCR) for exon enrichment from mutagenised individuals. This will mean a further increase in throughput, and has opened up the possibility of identifying a non-sense allele in every protein coding gene within a reasonable time frame and budget.