Pericentromeric hypomethylation elicits an interferon response in an animal model of ICF syndrome [ssRNA-seq]

The goal of this study was to investigate DNA methylation and gene expression changes in a zebrafish model of ICF Syndrome which were generated by mutation of ICF-gene zbtb24. Comparison of gene expression changes between wildtype and zbtb24 homozygous mutants revealed upregulation of interferon response genes following zbtb24 deletion. Upregulation of interferon response genes was blocked by mutation of the dsRNA helicase Mda5. For RNA-seq, gene expression was compared in whole two-week-old zebrafish larvae that were wildtype or homozygous for the zbtb24mk22 mutant allele. We further performed RNA-Seq analysis in three-week-old zebrafish larvae that were WT, mda5mk29/mk29 , zbtb24mk22/mk22 and mda5mk29/mk29 ;zbtb24mk22/mk22. Three samples consisting of pools of 10 larvae were examined for each genotype. For ERRBS, DNA was separately isolated from the fins of three wildtype and three zbtb24mk22 homozygous mutant adults.