Modeling Human Disease and Development in Zebrafish

Abstract

Many of the critical pathways that govern vertebrate development are highly conserved between humans and zebrafish (Danio rerio). The zebrafish genome shares a high degree of sequence similarity to that of humans. Approximately 70% of genes associated with diseases in humans have functional homologs in the zebrafish [1]. In addition zebrafish as an experimental model offers many advantages including their ability to produce large number of eggs (a single cross can generate 200–300 embryos), they develop outside the body, are transparent making them amenable to follow during organogenesis. Development is rapid with major organ primordial forming by 24 hours after fertilization. Compared to other vertebrate models, zebrafish are easy and inexpensive to raise and maintain. [2]. George Streisinger, a founding father of zebrafish research was one of the first to work with zebrafish in the late 1960s [3]. He began to study embryonic development particularly that of the nervous system by employing mutant strains [4-6]. Realizing the importance of the zebrafish model, Grunwald and Eisen used this developmental model to study the segmental structures of the brain and characterized neurons in the zebrafish that had not been reported in any other vertebrate model [7]. Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, a fruit fly geneticist at the University of Tubingen, who identified 120 developmentally important genes in Drosophila melanogaster [8], recognized the usefulness of zebrafish as a vertebrate model, and established collaboration with Marc Fishman at the Massachusetts General Hospital [9] to study these developmentally important genes in zebrafish.