Salinity levels constrain the habitable environment of all aquatic organisms. Zebrafish are freshwater fish that cannot tolerate high-salt environments and would therefore benefit from neural mechanisms that enable the navigation of salt gradients to avoid high salinity. Yet zebrafish lack epithelial sodium channels, the primary conduit land animals use to taste sodium. This suggests fish may possess novel, undescribed mechanisms for salt detection. In the present study, we show that zebrafish indeed respond to small temporal increases in salt by reorienting more frequently. Further, we use calcium imaging techniques to identify the olfactory system as the primary sense used for salt detection, and we find that a specific subset of olfactory receptor neurons encodes absolute salinity concentrations by detecting monovalent anions and cations. In summary, our study establishes that zebrafish larvae have the ability to navigate and thus detect salinity gradients and that this is achieved through previously undescribed sensory mechanisms for salt detection.

Jordi J, Guggiana-Nilo D, Soucy E, Song EY, Wee CL, Engert F. A high-throughput assay for quantifying appetite and digestive dynamics. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 309: R345-R357, 2015. First published June 24, 2015 doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00225.2015.-Food intake and digestion are vital functions, and their dysregulation is fundamental for many human diseases. Current methods do not support their dynamic quantification on large scales in unrestrained vertebrates. Here, we combine an infrared macroscope with fluorescently labeled food to quantify feeding behavior and intestinal nutrient metabolism with high temporal resolution, sensitivity, and throughput in naturally behaving zebrafish larvae. Using this method and rate-based modeling, we demonstrate that zebrafish larvae match nutrient intake to their bodily demand and that larvae adjust their digestion rate, according to the ingested meal size. Such adaptive feedback mechanisms make this model system amenable to identify potential chemical modulators. As proof of concept, we demonstrate that nicotine, L-lysine, ghrelin, and insulin have analogous impact on food intake as in mammals. Consequently, the method presented here will promote large-scale translational research of food intake and digestive function in a naturally behaving vertebrate.appetite; hunger; satiation; satiety; DiR' dye FOOD INTAKE AND DIGESTION are key physiological processes that provide nutrients to drive all bodily functions. Nutrient intake is matched to nutritional needs by the brain-a process termed nutrient homeostasis-using an intertwined organism-wide array of extrinsic and intrinsic cues coding food availability and demand (2, 42). Dysfunction of feeding and digestive behavior is at the root of global health problems, such as obesity, malnutrition, and Type 2 diabetes, among many others, and, therefore, a deeper understanding of feeding and digestive behavior is of high importance (25).Drugs or genetic manipulations that alter food intake or digestion are highly desirable remedies for food-related disorders. To screen for genes or small molecules with clinically desirable impact, the technology of choice needs to support the analyses of hundreds to thousands of individual animals. Until now, large-scale studies of feeding behavior have solely been feasible in small invertebrates such as Drosophila, but were constrained to 20 -50 conditions in vertebrates, thereby making large-scale screens elusive (12,17,35). Technically, even more demanding than measuring food intake is the quantification of nutrient digestion, as there is no direct optical access to the gastrointestinal tract in most species. More specialized technologies, such as bioluminescence, MRI, or computed tomography, have been valuable to generate insights into in vivo dynamics of digestive function (10,18,19,31). However, all of these methods require immobilization of the experimental subject to reduce motion artifacts, thereby making concurrent behavioral observations impossible. Consequently, quantifying the dy...

Large-scale chemical and multibehavioral profiling identifies previously unknown potent and specific appetite modulators.

For many organisms, color is an essential source of information from visual scenes. The larval zebrafish has the potential to be a model for the study of this topic, given its tetrachromatic retina and high dependence on vision. In this study we took a step toward understanding how the larval zebrafish might use color sensing. To this end, we used a projector-based paradigm to force a choice of a color stimulus at every turn of the larva. The stimuli used spanned most of the larval spectral range, including activation of its Ultraviolet (UV) cone, which has not been described behaviorally before. We found that zebrafish larvae swim toward visible wavelengths (>400 nm) when choosing between them and darkness, as has been reported with white light. However, when presented with UV light and darkness zebrafish show an intensity dependent avoidance behavior. This UV avoidance does not interact cooperatively with phototaxis toward longer wavelengths, but can compete against it in an intensity dependent manner. Finally, we show that the avoidance behavior depends on the presence of eyes with functional UV cones. These findings open future avenues for studying the neural circuits that underlie color sensing in the larval zebrafish.

Salinity levels constrain the habitable environment of all aquatic organisms. Zebrafish are freshwater fish that cannot tolerate high salt environments and would, therefore, benefit from neural mechanisms that enable the navigation of salt gradients to avoid high salinity. Yet, zebrafish lack epithelial sodium channels, the primary conduit land animals use to taste sodium. This suggests fish may possess novel, undescribed mechanisms for salt detection. In the present study, we show that zebrafish, indeed, respond to small temporal increases in salt by reorienting more frequently. Further, we use calcium imaging techniques to identify the olfactory system as the primary sense used for salt detection, and we find that a specific subset of olfactory receptor neurons encodes absolute salinity concentrations by detecting monovalent anions and cations. In summary, our study establishes that zebrafish larvae have the ability to navigate, and thus detect salinity gradients, and that this is achieved through previously undescribed sensory mechanisms for salt detection.