FLUORESCENT TRANSGENIC ZEBRAFISH AS SENSITIVE TOOL FOR BIOMONITORING OF AQUATIC CONTAMINATION

Abstract

A STANDARD ZEBRAFISH TOXICOLOGICAL TEST, DART (DANIO RERIO TERATOGENIC ASSAY), IS BASED ON WILD-TYPE ZEBRAFISH EMBRYO AND IT HAS BEEN WIDELY USED FOR TOXICOLOGICAL SCREENINGS. WITH THE AVAILABILITY OF MANY FLUORESCENT TRANSGENIC ZEBRAFISH STRAINS TO HAVE THEIR ORGANS AND TISSUES SPECIFICALLY LABELED BY FLUORESCENT PROTEINS, WE ENVISION THAT THE FLUORESCENT MARKERS MAY PROVIDE MORE SENSITIVE AND CONVENIENT ENDPOINTS FOR MONITORING CHEMICAL INDUCED PHENOTYPICAL CHANGES. IN THIS PROJECT, WE SELECTED NINE TRANSGENIC ZEBRAFISH LINES TO INVESTIGATE THEIR SUITABILITY FOR TESTING CHEMICALS WITH DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF TOXICITY. FOR MOST OF THESE TESTED FLUORESCENT STRAINS, WE FOUND MARKED IMPROVEMENT IN SENSITIVITY. WE ALSO IDENTIFIED THREE TRANSGENIC LINES FOR DEVELOPING SPECIFIC TOXICITY ASSAYS: INCLUDING NEUROTOXICITY ASSAY USING TG(NKX2.2A:MEGFP), HEPATOTOXICITY ASSAY USING TG(FABP10A:DSRED;ELAA:EGFP), AND INFLAMMATION ASSAY USING TG(LYSC:DSRED2). THUS, OUR STUDY MAY OPEN A NEW AVENUE TO U