Development of a Promising Fish Model (Oryzias melastigma) for Assessing Multiple Responses to Stresses in the Marine Environment

Abstract

With the increasing number of contaminants in the marine environment, various experimental organisms have been “taken into labs” by investigators to find the most suitable environmentally relevant models for toxicity testing. The marine medaka, Oryzias melastigma, has a number of advantages that make it a prime candidate for these tests. Recently, many studies have been conducted on marine medaka, especially in terms of their physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses after exposure to contaminants and other environmental stressors. This review provides a literature survey highlighting the steady increase of ecotoxicological research on marine medaka, summarizes the advantages of using O. melastigma as a tool for toxicological research, and promotes the utilization of this organism in future studies.

The genome of the marine medaka Oryzias melastigma

“…Marine medaka ( Oryzias melastigma ) (also known as the Indian medaka or brackish medaka) is a native species to coastal waters in Pakistan, India, Burma and Thailand (Naruse, ). It is considered a useful fish species for marine and estuarine ecotoxicology studies due its small size (4.5–23 mm), short generation time (2–3 months), distinct sexual dimorphism with anal fin morphology and ability to tolerate a wide range of salinities (Dong, Kang, Wu, & Ye, ; Inoue & Takei, ; Kim et al., ). On the basis of these advantages, marine medaka ( O. melastigma ) and Japanese medaka ( O. latipes ) have been extensively used in ecotoxicological studies to evaluate various chemicals based on the view of mechanistic toxicity (Table ).…”

Tissue-specific transcriptome assemblies of the marine medaka Oryzias melastigma and comparative analysis with the freshwater medaka Oryzias latipes

“…Such differences indicate that ecotoxicological results from freshwater environments cannot be directly applied to the marine environment [ 1 ]. The marine medaka Oryzias melastigma ( O. melastigma ) is an emerging marine fish model used in the investigation of the response of organisms to pollutants, toxins and stresses in marine environments [ 5 , 6 ]. In fact, O. melastigma is already used in a variety of estuarine and marine ecotoxicological studies [ 7 - 10 ], demonstrating their potential in studying the effect of organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals, microorganism and environmental stresses in relation to cardiac toxicity [ 11 ], hepatotoxicity [ 9 ], neurotoxcity [ 12 ], immunotoxicity [ 10 ], and so forth.…”

Metabolomics approach reveals metabolic disorders and potential biomarkers associated with the developmental toxicity of tetrabromobisphenol A and tetrachlorobisphenol A

“…The marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) model has many advantages, such as a short generation time, transparent eggs that facilitate experimental observations and manipulations, high levels of egg production, eggs and larvae that are sensitive to environmental pollutants, and the fact that it has been widely applied in toxicology studies 17 . Accordingly, O. melastigma embryos were used as a model to elucidate the potential effects of H-BPA on developmental toxicity in a comprehensive manner by employing metabolomics based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), which has been shown to be a useful approach for discovering metabolic disorders related to environmental toxicology 18 19 .…”