斑马鱼胚胎发育的功能染色体组

随着人类和其他物种染色体组测序工作的完成 ,人类科学最大的任务就是阐明数以万计的基因的生物功能。人类和动物生命周期都从受精卵开始 ,然后一步一步地发育成具有多元组织和器官的生物体。在胚胎形成过程中 ,伴随着基因生成物的协同运作 ,基因按其固有的程序陆续显现出影响 ,从而决定并实现整个人体程序。如果使用适当的动物做模型的话 ,可以加速胚胎功能染色体组的研究。斑马鱼就是这项研究一个很好的模型。斑马鱼最大的优点就是产卵多、体外胚胎发育、体积小、容易养活 ,除此以外 ,很多的分子、细胞、胚胎和基因操作在斑马鱼身上都很容…

Functional Genomics of Embryonic Development in Zebrafish

As the genome sequencing of human and other species is complete, a major task in life science is to elucidate biological functions of thousands of genes. Life cycle of human and animals starts from single fertilized eggs that will develop step by step into sophisticated organisms consisting of multiple tissues and organs. During embryogenesis, genes are expressed sequentially according to inherent programs and gene products function coordinately, which determine and actualize the body plan. Functional genomics of embryos can be accelerated if an appropriate model animal is exploited. Zebrafish is an excellent model for such a study. The natural advantages of Zebrafish include high production of eggs, external development of embryos, small size and easy maintenance. In addition, many molecular, cellular, embryonic and genetic operations can be done easily in zebra fish. Two approaches, forward and reverse genetics, have been widely used to study gene functions during development of zebrafish embryos. The forward genetics is to identify genes from mutants created by mutagenesis with chemical mutagens, y-ray and recombinant retrovirus. More than 4,000 mutants with various embryonic defects have been generated and about 500 genes responsible for mutant phenotypes have been identified. The mutagenesis in zebrafish has revealed some important mechanisms controlling development of vertebrate embryos. With respect to reverse genetics approach, over 3,000 tissue-specific genes have been identified through whole-mount in situ hybridization screen. The functions of some of these genes during embryogenesis have been studied in details.