Interspecies Behavioral Variability of Medaka Fish Assessed by Comparative Phenomics

Abstract

Recently, medaka has been used as a model organism in various research fields. However, even though it possesses several advantages over zebrafish, fewer studies were done in medaka compared to zebrafish, especially with regard to its behavior. Thus, to provide more information regarding its behavior and to demonstrate the behavioral differences between several species of medaka, we compared the behavioral performance and biomarker expression in the brain between four medaka fishes, Oryzias latipes, Oryzias dancena, Oryzias woworae, and Oryzias sinensis. We found that each medaka species explicitly exhibited different behaviors to each other, which might be related to the different basal levels of several biomarkers. Furthermore, by phenomics and genomic-based clustering, the differences between these medaka fishes were further investigated. Here, the phenomic-based clustering was based on the behavior results, while the genomic-based clustering was based on the sequence of the nd2 gene. As we expected, both clusterings showed some resemblances to each other in terms of the interspecies relationship between medaka and zebrafish. However, this similarity was not displayed by both clusterings in the medaka interspecies comparisons. Therefore, these results suggest a re-interpretation of several prior studies in comparative biology. We hope that these results contribute to the growing database of medaka fish phenotypes and provide one of the foundations for future phenomics studies of medaka fish.

Age-related alterations in the behavioral response to a novel environment in the African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri)

“…In this study, we investigated killifish behavior over their adult lifespan in an open field and novel tank diving test to set a baseline for future behavioral experiments. The open field test and the novel tank diving test have been widely used by zebrafish and medaka researchers in the last decade ( Egan et al, 2009 ; Cachat et al, 2010 ; Matsunaga and Watanabe, 2010 ; Rosemberg et al, 2011 ; Godwin et al, 2012 ; Stewart et al, 2012 , 2014 ; Liu et al, 2018 ; Lucon-Xiccato et al, 2020 , 2022 ; Audira et al, 2021 ). Since killifish are fast-aging, it is important to investigate behavioral changes over their adult lifespan, as this might influence experiments where the effect of a certain drug on behavior over different ages is studied ( Thoré et al, 2023 ).…”

“…The novel tank diving test typically studies exploration, diving, and immobility/freezing behavior ( Blaser and Rosemberg, 2012 ; DePasquale et al, 2022 ). Different teleost species display different behaviors in these types of behavioral tests ( Egan et al, 2009 ; Cachat et al, 2010 ; Matsunaga and Watanabe, 2010 ; Godwin et al, 2012 ; Audira et al, 2021 ; DePasquale et al, 2022 ; Lucon-Xiccato et al, 2022 ; Saiz et al, 2023 ). In this study, we, therefore, tested the new aging model organism N. furzeri in the open field test and the novel tank diving test over its adult lifespan to set a baseline for future behavior experiments.…”

Species Differences in Tryptophan Metabolism and Disposition

“…While serotonin is synthesised from Trp in a whole range of species and performs important functions in many physiological processes, including mood in humans, 148 aggression in vervet monkey, 87 injurious behaviour in pigeon, hens and parrots 150 or catecholamines metabolism in rats, 149 surprisingly little comparative studies of serotonin pathway activity across species or strains thereof have been reported and these are mainly concerned with response of the pathway to manipulations, such as stress. 261 alterations in dietary Trp, 262 monoamine transporters in humans, rats and mice, 263 behavioural variability in Medaka fish strains 264 and mouse strain differences in serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitor sensitivity. 265 Table 6 summarises data published on species content of brain Trp and its 5-hydroxyindole metabolites 5-HT and Cichlid (6) All values are in µM.…”

Vrk2 deficiency elicits aggressive behavior in female zebrafish

“…We used the mirror test to assess zebrafish aggressiveness (Audira et al, 2021). The zebrafish were introduced to a rectangular tank (24.5 cm length × 14.5 cm height × 7.5 cm width) filled with 1.5 L of home tank water, with a mirror fixed to the vertical side wall.…”