Zebrafish: Genetic tools and genomics
I. Ivetac, J. Becanovic and V. Krishnapillai*
Department of Biological Sciences, Monash University, P.0. Box 18, Victoria 3800, Australia
Received 7 March 20001 Accepted 5 April 2000
Abstract.
The emergence of zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism with applications in vertebrate developmental genetics, modeling and study of human genetic diseases, study of vertebrate genome evolution and improved aquaculture of transgenic fish, has been accompanied by the development of a vast array of zebrafish specific genetic tools and genomic resources. Owing to its amenability to both phenotypic analysis and mutational screening and availability of a multitude of molecular genetic techniques, numerous zebrafish mutations have been assayed, extensive genetic maps created and many genes cloned. Comparative genomics using mammalian genomes is important to the provision of candidate genes for positional cloning strategies and gaining further insights into vertebrate genome evolution. With the likely sequencing of the entire zebrafish genome in the foreseeable future and further identification and cloning of zebrafish gene loci, the assignment of functions to uncharacterised human genes, known only by sequence from the Human Genome Project, is likely to become a reality.
Keywords: Cloning, genetics, genomics, mapping, zebrafish
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