Modeling congenital kidney diseases in .

Congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) occur in ∼1/500 live births and are a leading cause of pediatric kidney failure. With an average wait time of 3-5 years for a kidney transplant, the need is high for the development of new strategies aimed at reducing the incidence of CAKUT and preserving renal function. Next-generation sequencing has uncovered a significant number of putative causal genes, but a simple and efficient model system to examine the function of CAKUT genes is needed. (frog) embryos are well-suited to model congenital kidney diseases and to explore the mechanisms that cause these developmental defects. has many advantages for studying the kidney: the embryos develop externally and are easily manipulated with microinjections, they have a functional kidney in ∼2 days, and 79% of identified human disease genes have a verified ortholog in This facilitates high-throughput screening of candidate CAKUT-causing genes. In this Review, we present the similarities between and mammalian kidneys, highlight studies of CAKUT-causing genes in and describe how common kidney diseases have been modeled successfully in this model organism Additionally, we discuss several molecular pathways associated with kidney disease that have been studied in and demonstrate why it is a useful model for studying human kidney diseases.