The neurogenetic frontier--lessons from misbehaving zebrafish

Abstract

One of the central questions in neuroscience is how refined patterns of connectivity in the brain generate and monitor behavior. Genetic mutations can influence neural circuits by disrupting differentiation or maintenance of component neuronal cells or by altering functional patterns of nervous system connectivity. Mutagenesis screens therefore have the potential to reveal not only the molecular underpinnings of brain development and function, but to illuminate the cellular basis of behavior. Practical considerations make the zebrafish an organism of choice for undertaking forward genetic analysis of behavior. The powerful array of experimental tools at the disposal of the zebrafish researcher makes it possible to link molecular function to neuronal properties that underlie behavior. This review focuses on specific challenges to isolating and analyzing behavioral mutants in zebrafish.

Ototoxin-induced cellular damage in neuromasts disrupts lateral line function in larval zebrafish

“…It has previously been reported that larval raising conditions can have a direct effect on 628 sensitivity to auditory stimuli, with larvae raised at lower densities showing significantly 629 greater responsiveness (Burgess and Granato, 2008). In agreement with Burgess and…”

Chemical modulation of memory formation in larval zebrafish

“…S2). To quantify the degree of habituation for each individual tested, we calculated the ratio of the average SLC responsiveness during the last 10 habituation phase stimuli (i.e., stimuli [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] to the 10 prehabituation phase stimuli (i.e., stimuli [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The extent of habituation was similar in animals at 5, 10, and 14 dpf (Fig.…”

“…Despite the abundance of established habituation learning assays for adult rodent and zebrafish models, scaling these assays for systematic approaches is challenging given the inherent complexity and variability of adult behaviors, as well as the time required to train and test large numbers of animals (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). Larval zebrafish execute a repertoire of simple, well-defined, and stereotyped sensorimotor behaviors that have accessible and characterized circuitry and provide a vertebrate system amenable to large-scale forward genetic and chemical screening (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). Although some studies have explored the capacity of zebrafish larvae for various forms of short-term learning and sensory conditioning, these assays have not been adapted to systematic approaches (25)(26)(27).…”

Modulation of Fgfr1a Signaling in Zebrafish Reveals a Genetic Basis for the Aggression–Boldness Syndrome

“…9a). Zebrafish aggression levels can be affected by the environmental conditions during development (Marks et al, 2005), and behavioral assays are sensitive to changes in feeding regimen and diet, lighting conditions, pH, time of day, and experimental observer (Wahlsten et al, 2006;Burgess and Granato, 2008). Although we made an effort to maintain similar conditions between laboratories, we cannot rule out the contribution of one (or all) of these variables to the alterations in aggression levels.…”