THE ZEBRAFISHS SWIM TO FAME AS AN EXPERIMENTAL-MODEL IN BIOLOGY

The zebrafish has long been the favorite organism in many scientific d isciplines. Although its attributes as a model were expounded for many years and thus were no secret, the zebrafish sat in the wings while o ther more popular vertebrates such as chick, amphibians, and mouse wer e examined at length. We cannot say there was a resurgence in populari ty, but more an explosion of research utilizing the zebrafish beginnin g in the late 1970s when investigators at the University of Oregon beg an using it as their model in neuroscience. Prior to this reawakening, the zebrafish was one of the significant organisms in the study of te ratology and toxicology, development, and, to some extent, behavior. R ecently, however, the field of zebrafish genetics has gained immense p opularity and success, in part owing to the fact that zebrafish are di ploid and are amenable to genetic manipulations. Here we present an ov erview of the multidisciplinary research that has laid some of the fou ndation of our present understanding of the biochemical, cell biologic al, and molecular genetic events accompanying zebrafish development.