Reply to Corbeil et al.: Deletion of the transmembrane protein Prom1b in zebrafish disrupts outer-segment morphogenesis and causes photoreceptor degeneration

We thank Corbeil et al. (1) for their interest in our work.

In our study, the gene ID of prom1a is 322857, and the reference sequence is NP_001108615.2. The gene ID of prom1b is 378834, and the reference sequence is NP_932337.1. The target sequence for prom1a knockout (see our paper (2), Fig. 1) exists in all known splice variants.

We too were intrigued by the lack of a phenotype in the prom1a knockout zebrafish. The simplest explanation is that the role of prom1a was compensated for by its homologue prom1b. However, we have no direct evidence to support this theory.

We agree that several valid points have been raised, which deserve future investigation, such as the subcellular localization of prom1b in photoreceptors. However, we agree even more with the view that it is more important for our paper to show “the functional relevance of prom1b deficiency on the visual system.” That, in fact, is what we have shown in our paper (i.e. deletion of prom1b in zebrafish disrupts outer-segment morphogenesis and causes photoreceptor degeneration). In addition, deletion of prom1b prevents oligomerization and causes mislocalization of Prph2, which is an important protein for outer-segment morphogenesis.