Zebrafish

What is the zebrafish?　

As its name suggests, it is a small tropical fish (about 4 cm as an adult) with stripes on its body, native to India.

It is easy to keep and breed, and can be easily increased in the laboratory. It is also easy to obtain and can be purchased inexpensively at pet stores as zebra danio. 

Why do we use them for research?

　 Zebrafish fry are transparent and suitable for viewing body structure. They are also suitable for sequential genetics because of their high fecundity and short generation time (about 3 months), and many mutants have been obtained. In addition, gene function can be suppressed with oligos called morpholino and genetic modification techniques such as TALEN and ZFN. In addition, it is relatively easy to create transgenic lines in which any gene can be used in specific cells. 

In addition to these characteristics, zebrafish are vertebrates and share many similarities with humans in terms of body structure and development, making them a good model organism for studying how vertebrate bodies are made.

What we are doing with zebrafish in the biochemistry lab

1. the role of Notch signaling in neurogenesis

　Notch signaling is repeatedly involved in various aspects of vertebrate embryogenesis, and is involved in cell fate determination and regulation of cell proliferation. However, not all of them are known, and there are still many unknowns. For example, zebrafish have multiple Notch receptors and ligands, but how they are used differently is a problem. In the Biochemistry Laboratory, we focus on neuronal cell fate determination using the above-mentioned mutants, gene suppression techniques, transgenic fish, and behavioral analysis as described below.

2. regulation of cell migration during embryogenesis

　In embryogenesis, cell migration is essential for the production of organs and tissues with unique shapes. However, the mechanism by which many cells migrate in a regular manner is not well understood. Therefore, the Biochemistry Laboratory is analyzing the molecular mechanisms of cell migration by live imaging of transgenic lines using the zebrafish lateral line protoplast as a model of cell population migration.

3. behavior analysis

　The Biochemistry Laboratory also analyzes the behavior of zebrafish using high-speed cameras and real-time tracking systems. This allows us to analyze how gene mutations and drug exposure affect the behavior of zebrafish.

4. analysis of pharmacological effects

　 By adding drugs to the rearing water of zebrafish, we can easily study the effects and side effects of the drugs. In the Biochemistry Laboratory, we are analyzing pharmacological effects in combination with the behavioral analysis described above.