Danio rerio, zebrafish

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Taxonomic lineage

cellular organisms - Eukaryota - Fungi/Metazoa group - Metazoa - Eumetazoa - Bilateria - Coelomata - Deuterostomia - Chordata - Craniata - Vertebrata - Gnathostomata - Teleostomi - Euteleostomi - Actinopterygii - Actinopteri - Neopterygii - Teleostei - Elopocephala - Clupeocephala - Otocephala - Ostariophysi - Otophysi - Cypriniphysi - Cypriniformes - Cyprinoidea - Cyprinidae - Rasborinae - Danio - Danio rerio

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Brief facts

• Danio rerio is a tropical fish native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar.
• It is a popular aquarium fish which is frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio.
• Zebrafish is an important model organism in areas of embryogenesis, genetics and regeneration.

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Developmental stages (life cycle)

• Unfertilized egg Female produces 300-500 eggs per spawning; the eggs are fertilized externally.
• Embryo MeSH0-72 hours post-fertilization
  • Fertilized egg
    MeSHOne-cell embryo, zygote.
  • CleavageMeSHDividing egg, 0.7-2.2 h post-fertilization (hpf).
    • Early cleavage 2-8-cell embryo, 0.7-1.25 h post-fertilization.
    • morulaMeSHCompacted embryo; 16-64 cells; 1.25-2 h post-fertilization
    
    
    2-, 8-, and 64-cell embryo
    Yabe T et al. PLoS Genet. 2009 Jun;5(6):e1000518.
  • BlastulaMeSH2.25-5.25 h post-fertilization.
    • 256-cell stage 2.5 hpf.
    • High stage 3.3 hpf.
    • Oblong stage 3.5 hpf.
      
      1,000-cell
      Yabe T et al. PLoS Genet. 2009 Jun;5(6):e1000518.
    • Sphere stage 3.8 hpf.
    • Dome stage 4.3 hpf, 1000+ cells.
    • 30%-epiboly stage 4.7 hpf.
    • 50%-epiboly stage 5.25 hpf.
  • GastrulaMeSH5.25 - 10 h post-fertilization.
    
    Tailbud, ~10 hpf
    Nissen RM et al. BMC Dev Biol. 2006 Jun 7;6:28.
  • Segmentation Ten-24 h post-ferilization; 1-26+ somites development; because the times of neurulation and segmentation overlap so extensively, the zebrafish does not have a distinct "neurula period" of development, such as occurs largely before segmentation in amphibian embryos.
    
    20 somites, ~19.0 hpf
    Nissen RM et al. BMC Dev Biol. 2006 Jun 7;6:28.
  • Pharyngula Organogenesis, 21-48 h post-ferilization.
    Organogenesis, ~24.0 hpf
    Yabe T et al. PLoS Genet. 2009 Jun;5(6):e1000518.
  • HatchingHatching period, 48-72 h post-fertilization.
    
    Hatching, 60 hpf
    Christensen AK, Jensen AM. BMC Dev Biol. 2008 Jan 11;8:3.
    
    Hatching, ~72 hpf
    Huang H et al. BMC Dev Biol. 2005 Mar 24;5:7.
• Larval MeSHMorphogenesis and first days of free swimming.
  • Morphogenesis
    MeSH0-4 days after hatching; larvae grow using the nutrients in the yolk; by day 3 most of its morphogenesis is complete; the next day, the swim bladder inflates, reflective strips of iridophores brighten and lengthen; the early larva gradually begins to swim about actively, and moves its jaws.
    Late larva, 7 days post fertilization
    Kohli V, Elezzabi AY. BMC Biotechnol. 2008 Jan 29;8:7.
  • Late larva 4-15 days old fish; these baby fish feed on ciliates and microalgae.
    
• Juvenile 2-10 weeks old
  • Early fry 2-3 weeks old; starts eating worms and small shrimp.
  • late fry 3-10 weeks old; can be kept with adult fish
• Adult Sexual maturity is attained at 10 to 12 weeks of age; lifespan in well kept aquarium is up to 5 years.

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References

• Kohli V, Elezzabi AY. Laser surgery of zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos using femtosecond laser pulses: optimal parameters for exogenous material delivery, and the laser's effect on short- and long-term development. BMC Biotechnol. 2008 Jan 29;8:7.

  

  SEM images of a control larva reared to 2 dpf.

  Key developmental features that are illustrated are:

  • YS - yolk sac,
  • DF - dorsal fin,
  • CF - caudal fin,
  • OP - olfactory pit.

  

  SEM whole body image of a a control larva reared to 7 dpf. Developmental features indicated are:

  • VF - ventral fin
  • NC - notochord
  • PF - pectoral fin
  • OC - otic capsule
  • OV - otic vesicle
  • E - eye cornea
  • OP - olfactory pit
  • PM - protruding mouth

• Kagemann L, Ishikawa H, Zou J, Charukamnoetkanok P, Wollstein G, Townsend KA, Gabriele ML, Bahary N, Wei X, Fujimoto JG, Schuman JS. Repeated, noninvasive, high resolution spectral domain optical coherence tomography imaging of zebrafish embryos. Mol Vis. 2008;14:2157-70.

  

  The appearance of the 72 hpf zebrafish with millimeter ruler, at magnification, and as observed by SD-OCT provided for appreciation of its small size. Zebrafish embryos were embedded in 1% agarose gel in an inverted microscopy Petri dish.

• Iwashita M, Watanabe M, Ishii M, Chen T, Johnson SL, Kurachi Y, Okada N, Kondo S. Pigment pattern in jaguar/obelix zebrafish is caused by a Kir7.1 mutation: implications for the regulation of melanosome movement. PLoS Genet. 2006 Nov 24;2(11):e197.

  

  Adult Pigment Patterns in jaguar/obelix Mutant Zebrafish. Pigment patterns of whole body (top), trunk (middle), and anal fin (bottom) in wild-type (WT), heterozygous (obe^td15/+), and homozygous (obe^td15/obe^td15) fish. Pigment patterns in all alleles of jaguar/obelix (jag^b230, obe^tc271d, and obe^td15) mutants are almost identical (unpublished data).

• Lang MR, Patterson LB, Gordon TN, Johnson SL, Parichy DM. Basonuclin-2 requirements for zebrafish adult pigment pattern development and female fertility. PLoS Genet. 2009 Nov;5(11):e1000744.

  

  bonaparte and poppy mutants have fewer metamorphic melanophores, xanthophores, and iridophores. (A) Wild-type adult zebrafish. (B) bonaparte mutants lack melanophore and xanthophore stripes on the body but retain stripes in the caudal and anal fins and exhibit a normal pattern of scale melanophores. A few residual iridophores are evident near the horizontal myoseptum. Internal viscera are partially visible owing to the absence of melanophores and iridophores. (C) poppy mutants retain partial stripes of melanophores on the body as well as the fins. (D) Time course illustrating the increasingly severe deficit of melanophores (means±SE) in bonaparte homozygotes as compared to phenotypically wild-type bonaparte/+ siblings followed daily between 16 and 36 days post-fertilization (dpf; n=1 to 3 fish for each genotype across all days). (E,F) Images of individual wild-type (bonaparte/+) and bonaparte larvae from the onset of pigment pattern metamorphosis (here, 12 dpf) through completion of the adult pigment pattern (36 dpf). bonaparte mutants lack early appearing metamorphic iridophores (arrow in E at 12 dpf), but develop dispersed metamorphic melanophores (arrowheads in (E) and (F) at 16 dpf). Subsequently, bonaparte mutants do not develop nascent adult stripes as in wild-type (arrowhead in (E) at 20 dpf) and exhibit only residual clusters of melanophores on the flank (arrowhead in (F) at 36 dpf) when wild-type fish exhibit fully formed adult stripes.

• Mathavan S, Lee SG, Mak A, Miller LD, Murthy KR, Govindarajan KR, Tong Y, Wu YL, Lam SH, Yang H, Ruan Y, Korzh V, Gong Z, Liu ET, Lufkin T. Transcriptome analysis of zebrafish embryogenesis using microarrays. PLoS Genet. 2005 Aug;1(2):260-76.

  

  Overview of the Expression Patterns of Genes Peaking at Selected Developmental Stages.

  (A,B) Differentially expressed genes were clustered based on the peak of expression at the selected developmental stages and presented in the clustergram. Of the total number of 3,657 genes analyzed, 622, 609, 1,006, 688, and 732 genes showed peak expression at maternal, blastula, gastrula, segmentation, and pharyngula stages, respectively.

  (C) General trend and average performance of the genes at each developmental stage are graphically represented (red, high expression; green, low expression). It is clear from this analysis that different sets of genes displayed their maximum at different stages of development, indicating the temporal/stage-specific maximum activity of the developmentally regulated genes.

• Jones R. Let sleeping zebrafish lie: a new model for sleep studies. PLoS Biol. 2007 Oct;5(10):e281.

  

  Infrared picture of an adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) sleeping at the bottom of its aquarium.

• Ghysen A, Dambly-Chaudière C, Raible D. Making sense of zebrafish neural development in the Minervois. Neural Dev. 2007 Aug 8;2:15.

  

  The manifestation of fear, which is called startle response is induced by a sudden, intense sensory stimulation and comprises a very stereotyped set of muscle contractions called 'C-turn', the result of which is that the embryo flees away from the stimulus. This response is extremely rapid (latency about 2–4 ms) and is mediated by a giant reticulo-spinal neuron, the Mauthner cell.

• Best JD, Alderton WK. Zebrafish: An in vivo model for the study of neurological diseases. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2008 Jun;4(3):567-76.
• ZFIN: Zebrafish Information Network
• MGH/CVRC Zebrafish Server