Zebrafish: bridging the gap between development and disease

Abstract

The zebrafish has been the model of choice amongst developmental biologists for many years. This small freshwater species offers many advantages to the study of organ and tissue development that are not provided by other model systems. Against this background, modern molecular genetic approaches are being applied to expand the physical and genetic mapping of the zebrafish genome. These approaches complement the large-scale mutagenic screens that have led to the isolation of mutant phenotypes. Some of the phenotypes have been found to resemble human disease states, while mapping and sequencing data have revealed zebrafish genes with significant homology to human disease-causing genes. It is the realization that the zebrafish offers an amenable system for understanding disease, as opposed to development, that underpins this review. The adventitious identification of disease phenotypes amongst zebrafish mutants and the important area of deliberate disease modelling using transgenesis and gene targeting should lead to a better application of the zebrafish as a vertebrate model of human diseases.

Zebrafish: At the Nexus of Functional and Chemical Genomics

“…Although the zebrafish has been predoininantly lIsed to study vertebrate developnlent, its potential as a platfornl for disease analysis and drug discovery is slowly being realized (Zon, 1999;Barut and Zon, 2000;Dodd et al, 2000;Dooley and Zon t 2000;Pichler ef al., 2003). The zebrafish offers the potenlial to playa key role in a cOlnparative disease analysis approach.…”

Kit‐like immunoreactivity in the zebrafish gastrointestinal tract reveals putative ICC

“…Disturbances in ICC distribution have been correlated with GI dysmotilities in animal model systems, and in humans (He et al, 2000(He et al, , 2001Huizinga et al, 2001;Lyford et al, 2002;Sanders et al, 2006). The zebrafish is a well-established model system for studies on development, and is an important model system for human disease (Dodd et al, 2000;Goldsmith, 2004). Zebrafish larvae are transparent, which allows direct observation of organ function in the intact organism.…”

Zebrafish dystrophin and utrophin genes: Dissecting transcriptional expression during embryonic development

“…In order to address this deficiency, we turned our attention to the zebrafish (Danio rerio). Zebrafish offers advantages over other model organisms in that they are optically transparent during embryonic development and ex utero development allows for easy manipulations (34,(36)(37)(38). The main qualities of using zebrafish are their rapid generation cycles, low maintenance requirements and cost effectiveness at high densities.…”