The zebrafish's swim to fame as an experimental model in biology

Abstract

The zebrafish has long been the favorite organism in many scientific disciplines. Although its attributes as a model were expounded for many years and thus were no secret, the zebrafish sat in the wings while other more popular vertebrates such as chick, amphibians, and mouse were examined at length. We cannot say there was a resurgence in popularity, but more an explosion of research utilizing the zebrafish beginning in the late 1970s when investigators at the University of Oregon began using it as their model in neuroscience. Prior to this reawakening, the zebrafish was one of the significant organisms in the study of teratology and toxicology, development, and, to some extent, behavior. Recently, however, the field of zebrafish genetics has gained immense popularity and success, in part owing to the fact that zebrafish are diploid and are amenable to genetic manipulations. Here we present an overview of the multidisciplinary research that has laid some of the foundation of our present understanding of the biochemical, cell biological, and molecular genetic events accompanying zebrafish development.

Associative learning in zebrafish (Danio rerio) in the plus maze

“…For the past three decades the zebrafish has been one of the favorite species of developmental biologists [34] due to the small size and prolific nature of this fish and to the fact that its development is fast (takes about 5 days from fertilization to get a free swimming little fish) and its embryo is mainly transparent throughout its development. As a result of these features numerous genetic tools have been developed and a substantial amount of genetic information has been amassed for zebrafish.…”

Latent learning in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

“…The zebrafish has been one of the favored model organisms of embryology [48] and, due to the numerous and extensive developmental studies using genetic approaches conducted with this species, by now zebrafish is one of the most frequently employed animal model organisms of genetics too [27]. As a result of the accumulated genetic knowledge and the large number of genetics tools developed for this species, the zebrafish has been gaining popularity in behavioral brain research as well [42].…”

Use of different morphological techniques to analyze the cellular composition of the adult zebrafish optic tectum

“…Since zebrafish became a widely used laboratory animal only during the last decade, it is normal that there is very limited information published concerning its different brain structures, including the optic tectum (Vascotto et al,1997). In this work we were able to collect some important morphological information pertaining structural characteristics of the adult zebrafish optic tectum both on the light and electron microscopy level.…”

“…Zebrafish ( Danio rerio ), a small and sturdy teleost, native to Bangladesh but widely available in pet stores around the world started its career as a laboratory animal for genetic studies (den Hollander et al,2010). Its use, however, exploded into developmental research (Esain et al,2010) and gene expression (Vascotto et al,1997) because of its transparent chorion and easiness to maintain and handle embryos.…”

“…Recently, it has gained popularity in many other scientific fields like toxicology (Augustine‐Rauch et al,2010; Sukardi et al,2010), behavioral neuroscience (Guerette et al,2007) and neuroplasticity (Becker and Becker,2008). Apart from its biological value, the other main reason why zebrafish are now widely used in many laboratories is the inexpensive cost (Vascotto et al,1997). As more and more general information becomes available about zebrafish anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology and behavior, the more important this fish is becoming as a general laboratory animal.…”