Introduction: neuroanatomy for a neurogenetic model system

Abstract

“Zebrafish hit the big time”: This title of a recent commentary in Science (Kahn, 1994) reflects the growing importance of a new model organism for developmental research, the zebrafish Danio rerio (Fig. 1). Pioneering work using this model began in the laboratories of George Streisinger and Charles Kimmel in the early 1970s, and to date studies of zebrafish have contributed notably to understanding early nervous system development and its genetic regulation in at least three areas:

• 1. Differentiation of first neurons and their associated tracts and commissures in the embryonic zebrafish brain

• 2. Neuromeres and expression of regulatory genes in embryonic zebrafish

• 3. Generation of zebrafish mutants via saturation mutagenesis