Morphologic analysis of the zebrafish digestive system.
The zebrafish provides an ideal model for the study of vertebrate organogenesis, including the formation of the digestive tract and its associated organs. Despite optical transparency of embryos, the internal position of the developing digestive system and its close juxtaposition with the yolk initially made morphological analysis relatively challenging, particularly during the first 3 d of development. However, methodologies have been successfully developed to address these problems and comprehensive morphologic analysis of the developing digestive system has now been achieved using a combination of light and fluorescence microscope approaches-including confocal analysis-to visualize wholemount and histological preparations of zebrafish embryos. Furthermore, the expanding number of antibodies that cross-react with zebrafish proteins and the generation of tissue-specific transgenic green fluorescent protein reporter lines that mark specific cell and tissue compartments have greatly enhanced our ability to successfully image the developing zebrafish digestive system.
Colon Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Andrew J
AJ
Trotter
Adam C
AC
Parslow
Joan K
JK
Heath
D000818:Animals; D004064:Digestive System / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D038081:Organogenesis; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins