Molecular genetic analysis of embryonic patterning and morphogenesis in zebrafish

在胚胎发育期间，一个不起眼的细胞球会形成图案，并塑造成可识别的人类形状。我的实验室感兴趣的是了解控制这种不可思议的转变的分子和遗传事件，并将斑马鱼作为遗传有机体进行研究。在过去的十年里，紧张的科学研究已经将水族鱼Danio rerio(斑马鱼)发展成为一种有价值的实验有机体，用于模拟和研究人类胚胎发育和疾病-尽管你不能观察孩子在母亲体内成长，但你可以研究鱼在胚胎发生过程中的过程。斑马鱼的胚胎丰富、透明，很容易在显微镜下生长--这让我们能够真正观察到胚胎在细胞甚至亚细胞水平上的发育。此外，斑马鱼和人类之间构成发育中胚胎的图案化事件、细胞运动和组织重塑非常保守。最后，斑马鱼非常适合进行基因筛查，我们已经分离出了扰乱正常胚胎发育的基因突变。在这里，我们使用细胞生物学、胚胎学操作和斑马鱼的经典遗传学方法来确定胚胎发生所需的基因，以及这些基因如何控制驱动胚胎发育的基本过程。

During embryonic development, an unassuming ball of cells becomes patterned and shaped into a recognizable human form. My lab is interested in understanding the molecular and genetic events that control this incredible transformation, and use zebrafish as a genetic organism for study. In the last decade, intense scientific research has developed the aquarium fish Danio rerio (zebrafish) into a valuable experimental organism for modeling and studying human embryonic development and disease - although you can't watch a child growing inside its mother, you can study a fish as it proceeds through embryogenesis. Zebrafish embryos are abundant, transparent and easily grown under a microscope - this allows us to actually watch embryonic development occur at a cellular, and even a sub-cellular level. Moreover, the patterning events, cell movements, and tissue remodeling that structure the developing embryo are remarkably conserved between zebrafish and humans. Finally, zebrafish are well suited for genetic screens, and we have isolated mutations in genes that disrupt normal embryogenesis. Here, we employ cell biology, embryological manipulation, and classic genetic approaches in zebrafish to determine what genes are required for embryogenesis, and how these genes control fundamental processes that drive embryonic development.