Journal of Aquaculture Research & Development

Zebra fish: A biological model organism

International Conference on Aquaculture & Fisheries

July 20-22, 2015 Brisbane, Australia

Heiko Bleher

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Aquac Res Development

Abstract:

In 1822, when the Briton Francis Hamilton first described a certain small, longitudinally-banded fish as Cyprinus rerio (today Danio rerio) from the Kosi River in India and assigned it a so-called Danio-division (named after the Bengalese name Dhani) he can have had no idea of the popularity this little cyprinid would eventually achieve. It was first imported for the aquarium hobby in 1905, and christened ?zebra danio?, the name it still bears today. In universities and research laboratories it was established in the early 1980s as ?Zebra Fish? and became a model organism for studies of vertebrate development, developmental biology and some human genetic diseases after Streisinger?s pioneer work at the University of Oregon with wild fishes collected by Bleher in Assam. With the result those 15 years before Dolly the Scottish sheep achieved fame; Zebra Fish had been cloned at this University being the first vertebrate cloned in history. Today, over 5,000 researchers in 450 labs throughout more than 30 countries study Zebra Fish. And the author will not only talk about recent successes with this 3-5cm long fish but also about other tiny fish species with amazing scientific under estimated results in seeking solutions to diseases which affect humans.