Zebrafish as a Model Organism
Why use zebrafish as a model organism?
There are currently many different model organisms being used to study various biological questions. In general model organisms are used to get at biological questions in that would be impossible (or unethical!) to pursue with humans. These organisms are picked to be models both due to having biological similarities to humans and for ease of use.
Zebrafish have many advantages that make them an appealing model organism. These include:
- Cheap to maintain (cheaper than other common models such as mice)
- Produce hundreds of offspring each week
- Develop at a fast rate (They develop as much in one day as a human embryo develops in one month!)
- Embryos are transparent allowing for ease of examination
- Development is external allowing for easy study of early development
- Share 70% of genes with humans (84% of genes known to be associated with human disease have a zebrafish counterpart)
- Have all the same major organs and tissues as humans
- Regenerative capabilities
- Complete genome sequence published in 2013
Below shows the publications per year that use zebrafish as a model organism. As tools for studying zebrafish are developed and improved on more researchers use zebrafish to model disease or explore basic biology. To learn more about these tools click here.
