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Fishing for genes influencing vertebrate behavior: zebrafish making headway

Lab Animal volume 35, pages 33–39 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been a favorite model of developmental biologists and geneticists, but only recently have investigators begun to appreciate its usefulness in behavior genetics. Papers focusing on the behavior or brain function of this species were once extremely rare, but during the past decade rapid growth has taken place. Despite the increased interest, however, the number of studies devoted to the analysis of the behavior of this species is still orders of magnitude less than those conducted on more traditional laboratory subjects including the rat and the mouse. The authors review selected literature and demonstrate that zebrafish is an excellent subject for behavior genetics research, especially in the area of forward genetics (mutagenesis).

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Figure 1: Frequency of publications on zebrafish behavior in the past 30 years.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by NIH/NIAAA (USA) and NSERC (Canada).

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd., Mississauga, L5L 1C6, ON, Canada

    Margarette Sison,  Jacob Cawker,  Christine Buske &  Robert Gerlai

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  1. Margarette Sison
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Correspondence to Robert Gerlai.

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Sison, M., Cawker, J., Buske, C. et al. Fishing for genes influencing vertebrate behavior: zebrafish making headway. Lab Anim 35, 33–39 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0506-33

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