Zebrafish lab video

[BillT]

Here is a nicely done video of a very modern (they have a robot fish feeder) zebrafish lab giving a fairly good idea of what they do:

http://www.alnmag.com/videos/2014/07/breeding-zebrafish?et_cid=4060457&et_rid=651558105&type=cta

However, the number of genes the zebrafish has is closer to 30,000 than what the video says.

[Mugwump]

...quite the set up there...

[PaulineMi]

That was interesting.   What is "stimulated by mesh to breed"?  I see that a mesh basket is dropped into the tank. What purpose does it serve?

[BillT]

What is "stimulated by mesh to breed"?  I see that a mesh basket is dropped into the tank. What purpose does it serve?

This is one company's way to collect a lot of eggs from a large number of fish.
Most of the fish are kept in bare tanks.
An different tank bottom attracts the fish to breed there. Marbles are an older method that works. Gravel probably would also but the eggs would sit on top and get eaten. The eggs have to be out of reach of the adults or they will get eaten. The mesh is also attractive. Often fake vegetation is included which is an added attractant. Goldfish swimming through vegetation are supposed to be stimulated to release eggs by the plants hitting their sides.

The mesh thing they were using is on top of a funnel connected by tubing to a air lift tube which sucks the eggs out of the bottom of the funnel up and into a plastic tube with a smaller size mesh that retains the eggs where the eggs are collected and easily removed. Someone held up one of these collectors that had some eggs in.

These are used to get eggs for doing experiments and manipulations on at early stages. A single person can inject hundreds of eggs in a few hours. The first cell division occurs at 40 minutes after fertilization making a 2 cell embryo. After that the cells divide synchronously (all pretty much at the same time) until the embryo has gone through 10 divisions (making 1024 cells).
Often people want to inject things into the eggs at or before the eggs have divided up to get what they inject to all the cells. This can be done for many reasons: labeling cells with a fluorescent marker (usually at a later time), using molecules to block specific genes (simulating a mutation), adding DNA to get it into the genome (like a glofish which has a gene for a fluorescent protein added), adding RNA to fix a mutation (which shows what the gene does), and other things.

[PaulineMi]

Thanks for the explanation Bill

[PaulineMi]

Happened across this on You Tube. It shows the danio egg development over a 24 hour period.....
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ahJjLzyioWM

[BillT]

Nice movie you found Pauline!

[Mugwump]

Just watched this....yep, nice find Pauline....