Zebrafish are a small tropical species in the Cyprinidae family, and they are native to regions in South Africa.
Have you ever wondered why Zebrafish are often used in medical research?
It turns out that Zebrafish are a model organism, and share a lot of similarities to humans! We actually share 70% of our genes with Zebrafish. They have a lot of the same physical characteristics as us, such as a heart, spinal cord, eyes, kidneys…the list goes on. Zebrafish have also been useful for studying human diseases. Since Zebrafish share a lot of the same characteristics, changes in human organs as a result of disease will also appear in Zebrafish organs as well. They have also been used for toxicology studies, such as how certain substances or drugs affect their physiology.
Zebrafish are useful for understanding areas of ecology as well. Lots of genetic experiments have been performed with Zebrafish. Since they are a model species, methodology used in genetic experiments can also be applied to other species. A lot of people may wonder about the other benefits of Zebrafish, aside from them being a model species. First, they are quite small. This makes them efficient to keep in research labs, especially where space is often limited. They are quite easy to handle, hardy, and are easy to provide proper husbandry for. Also, females are quite fecund and will produce many eggs per spawning event. This is useful for when many eggs or embryos may be needed to run an experiments. Unlike some fish, Zebrafish in captivity do not have a spawning season. Spawning can be induced anytime, which is very useful for experimentation and research purposes. Lastly, in vitro fertilization (fertilization outside the body) can be done with Zebrafish, making it very easy to control fertilization and study development.
Here’s a photo of a Zebrafish:
Here’s a photo of a Zebrafish embryo developing under the microscope (this is at the 8 cell stage!)
References:
https://irp.nih.gov/blog/post/2016/08/why-use-zebrafish-to-study-human-diseases
https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/32/3/635/976822?login=true