Recent advances and future trends in zebrafish bioassays for aquatic ecotoxicology

Abstract

Zebrafish (Danio rerio), a cyprinid teleost, has become an ideal model species for aquatic ecotoxicology due to the broad spectra of methodologies that have been developed since the 1980s. The zebrafish has many advantages as a model organism e.g. small size, ex utero development of the embryo, short reproductive cycle, and transparent embryos. In addition, the zebrafish shares a high degree of homology with the human genome. It has become a powerful model organism for genetics, development, environmental toxicology, several human diseases and pharmacology. Zebrafish bioassays can be used for environmental monitoring including pollutant evaluations, such as toxic heavy metals, endocrine disruptors, and organic pollutants. The large number of transparent embryos gained from zebrafish females, in vitro and rapid embryonic development and ready-to-use methods of biotechnology enables us to use mostly automatized high-throughput screening not only in pharmaceutical drug development protocols but in aquatic ecotoxicology as well.