Danio Zebra & Rerio

Danio rerio

introduction

The zebrafish is a freshwater fish native to Asia (India, Pakistan , Bangladesh, Nepal) . It is found in plans stagnant waters, gentle rivers and rice fields. Embryos of zebra fish and transparent developing outside the mother , made the zebrafish a powerful tool for studying the development of fish, and by extension, that of vertebrates . Today , the scientific community is also used to better understand the basic cellular mechanisms that occur during the spread of diseases such as cancer. In addition, its excellent reproductive capacity ( spawning abundance all year) , and rearing conditions somewhat stringent , it easy to use .

Danio Zebra

General data

Zebrafish also called Zebra fish , or Danio rerio
Phylogenetic classification : teleost family Cyprinidae
Genome being sequenced ( almost complete )
1.5 billion base pairs
Number of genes : approx. 26,000 , 85% of kinship with man



Available tools

Many mutants screened through intensive mutagenesis.
Can transgenesis by injection into the egg nuclear transfer ( by a few laboratories) , transfection of embryos ( monitoring the activity of a regulatory sequence with the GFP reporter gene is performed regularly) .
Ectopic gene mRNA by injection into the corresponding division of first stages Expression .
Studies of possible genes with small blocking antisense morpholino -type molecules.
Tests of different drugs by simply adding in the middle ( the embryos are permeable to small molecules) .
Various functional advanced exploration techniques.