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Genetics
Zebrafish as Model Organism
The zebrafish (Danio rerio) - the most important fish in biomedical research after mice, thanks to transparent embryos and rapid genetics.
System: Reproductive Level: Advanced Discipline: Cellular
📖 Overview
Zebrafish embryos are transparent, develop externally, and can be genetically manipulated more easily than mammalian embryos. They have illuminated vertebrate heart development, neural circuit formation, regeneration mechanisms, and human disease models (cancer, neurodegeneration, muscular dystrophy). A single zebrafish clutch of 200+ eggs enables statistically powerful experiments in a fraction of the space of mouse research.
🎯 Applications
Cardiovascular development, neuroscience, cancer, drug screening, regeneration research.
✨ Fun Fact
Zebrafish contribute to more Nobel-Prize-adjacent research than any fish. Christiane Nusslein-Volhard shared the 1995 Nobel for developmental genetics work partly using zebrafish embryos.