Zebrafish, Medaka and Turquoise Killifish for Understanding Human Neurodegenerative/Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Abstract

In recent years, small fishes such as zebrafish and medaka have been widely recognized as model animals. They have high homology in genetics and tissue structure with humans and unique features that mammalian model animals do not have, such as transparency of embryos and larvae, a small body size and ease of experiments, including genetic manipulation. Zebrafish and medaka have been used extensively in the field of neurology, especially to unveil the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and recently, these fishes have also been utilized to understand neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder. The turquoise killifish has emerged as a new and unique model animal, especially for ageing research due to its unique life cycle, and this fish also seems to be useful for age-related neurological diseases. These small fishes are excellent animal models for the analysis of human neurological disorders and are expected to play increasing roles in this field. Here, we introduce various applications of these model fishes to improve our understanding of human neurological disorders.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; ageing; medaka; neurodegenerative disease; neurodevelopmental disorder; small fish; turquoise killifish; zebrafish.

Figure 1

This schema shows the life cycles of zebrafish, medaka and turquoise killifish. For further details, please refer to the main text.