UNSW Embryology

Zebrafish Development

© Dr Mark Hill (2007)

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Zebrafish or zebra danio (danio rerio) are seen as the latest "model' for embryological development studies. These embryos have the great advantage that they develop as practically "see through" embryos. That is, all internal development can be clearly observed from the outside in the living embryo.

Several large laboratories in the US are now developing large breeding programs to carry out "knockouts" and to find spontaneous mutants of interest.

Page Links: Introduction | Some Recent Findings | Taxon | Development Overview | WWW Links | References | Glossary

Some Recent Findings

Mesoderm Differentiation - Holley SA. The genetics and embryology of zebrafish metamerism. Dev Dyn. 2007 May 7

"The segmental pattern influences the development of the somite derivatives such as the myotome, and the myotome reciprocates to affect the formation of segment boundaries. While somites appear to be serially homologous, there may be variation in the segmentation mechanism along the body axis. Moreover, whereas the genetic architecture of the zebrafish, mouse, and chick segmentation clocks shares many common elements, there is evidence that the gene networks have undergone independent modification during evolution."

Notochord formation - Kida YS, Sato T, Miyasaka KY, Suto A, Ogura T. Daam1 regulates the endocytosis of EphB during the convergent extension of the zebrafish notochord. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Apr 5; (More? OMIM - Daam1)

"Convergent extension (CE) movement of cells is one of the fundamental processes that control the organized morphogenesis of tissues and organs. We show that subcellular localization of Daam1 (Dishevelled-Associated Activator of Morphogenesis 1), an essential component of noncanonical Wnt signaling, changes dynamically during notochord formation."

Kloosterman WP, Steiner FA, Berezikov E, de Bruijn E, van de Belt J, Verheul M, Cuppen E, Plasterk RH. Cloning and expression of new microRNAs from zebrafish. Nucleic Acids Res. 2006 May 12;34(9):2558-69.

"MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in development and regulate the expression of many animal genes by post-transcriptional gene. ...We analyzed the temporal and spatial expression patterns for 35 new miRNAs and for 32 known miRNAs in the zebrafish by whole mount in situ hybridization and northern blotting. Overall, 23 of the 35 new miRNAs and 30 of the 32 known miRNAs could be detected. We found that most miRNAs were expressed during later stages of development."

Knoll-Gellida A, Andre M, Gattegno T, Forgue J, Admon A, Babin PJ. Molecular phenotype of zebrafish ovarian follicle by serial analysis of gene expression and proteomic profiling, and comparison with the transcriptomes of other animals. BMC Genomics. 2006 Mar 9;7(1):4

"This study provides a complete sequence data set of maternal mRNA stored in zebrafish germ cells at the end of oogenesis. This catalogue contains highly-expressed transcripts that are part of a vertebrate ovarian expressed gene signature." "Ferritin heavy polypeptide 1, heat shock protein 90-beta, lactate dehydrogenase B4, beta-actin isoforms, tubulin beta 2, ATP synthase subunit 9, together with 40S ribosomal protein S27a, were common highly-expressed transcripts of vertebrate ovary/unfertilized egg."

Taxon

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

Development Overview

The Fishnet is a collection of Zebrafish resources from the Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, USA. This site is also mirrored in Australia for quicker local access.

Kimmel CB, Ballard WW, Kimmel SR, Ullmann B, Schilling TF. Stages of embryonic development of the zebrafish. Dev Dyn. 1995 Jul;203(3):253-310. (This Paper is also available on the WWW Stages of embryonic development of the zebrafish.

Defines and describes seven broad periods of zebrafish embryogenesis:

• zygote
• cleavage
• blastula
• gastrula
• segmentation
• pharyngula
• hatching periods

• Temperature and Standard Developmental Time
• Zygote Period (0-3/4 h)
• Cleavage Period (0.7- 2.2 h)
  • Description and Stages
• Blastula Period (2 1/4 - 5 1/4 h)
  • Description and Stages
• Gastrula Period (5 1/4 - 10 h)
  • Description and Stages
• Segmentation Period (10-24 h)
  • Description and Stages
• Pharyngula Period (24-48 h)
  • Description and Stages
• Hatching Period (48-72 h)
  • Description and Stages
• Early Larval Period Description