Zebrafish have increasingly played a crucial role in life sciences research in China, with over 300 laboratories currently utilizing zebrafish in their research. Zebrafish, a tropical bony vertebrate, were first introduced into life sciences research in the 1980s by George Streisinger, a renowned geneticist at the University of Oregon, USA. As an emerging model organism, zebrafish have garnered extensive attention from the scientific community. Due to their numerous biological advantages, such as a short sexual maturation cycle, high fecundity, external fertilization, transparent embryos, and external development, zebrafish have become an important vertebrate model organism. They are widely used in developmental biology, genetics, environmental toxicology, and aquaculture genetic breeding engineering, earning the nickname "water mouse."
Our Zebrafish Research Platform aims to provide high-quality zebrafish resources and technical services for researchers at our institution. The platform can currently accommodate 18 standard 10L fish tanks, 108 standard 3L fish tanks, and 60 standard 1.5L fish tanks. It maintains the TU zebrafish standard strain, along with several other tool strains and transgenic strains.
The Zebrafish Model Animal Platform comprises the zebrafish breeding system, pure water purification system, breeding water circulation system, embryo microinjection system, and embryo microscopic imaging system. The breeding system is equipped to monitor water temperature, pH, and conductivity in real time. The auxiliary experiment area is equipped with specialized zebrafish embryo incubation boxes, microinjectors, and stereomicroscopes, allowing for experiments such as zebrafish breeding, microinjection, and immunofluorescence.
As a novel model vertebrate with high genetic homology to humans, zebrafish are small in size, have transparent embryos, can be observed in real-time under a microscope, possess strong reproductive capabilities, and undergo external fertilization and development. The complete sequencing of the zebrafish genome has been accomplished, providing comprehensive genomic data. Zebrafish exhibit highly similar developmental mechanisms and characteristics to humans in the cardiovascular, renal, and nervous systems. With the advancement of scientific research, techniques for cell labeling, tissue transplantation, and gene editing in zebrafish have become increasingly sophisticated. These advancements have laid a solid foundation for research in embryology, genetic development, genomics, drug screening, and disease modeling.
