Optimization of zebrafish mating system in UNIMAS fish facility

Danio rerio, commonly known as zebrafish has been used as an excellent vertebrate model organism in biomedical, genetic and developmental researches. Zebrafish has advantageous characteristics of an ideal model organism, mainly its short generation time, large number of transparent embryo per matin...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tiong, Jacqueline Liq Lin
Format: Final Year Project Report / IMRAD
Language:English
English
Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/1451/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/1451/1/Optimization%20of%20zebrafish%20mating%20system%20in%20UNIMAS%20fish%20facility%20%2824%20pages%29.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/1451/8/Jacqueline%20ft.pdf
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Summary:Danio rerio, commonly known as zebrafish has been used as an excellent vertebrate model organism in biomedical, genetic and developmental researches. Zebrafish has advantageous characteristics of an ideal model organism, mainly its short generation time, large number of transparent embryo per mating. However, zebrafish husbandry is surprisingly under-established. Despite its usefulness in various researches, minimal researches had been carried out in the past to optimize the zebrafish’s mating system. Hence, the aim of this study is to look at different parameters which may affect the fecundity of zebrafish. The parameters selected are length of light cycle, pairing of fish and water temperature. Zebrafish are selected randomly to test the hypothesis whether the mean number of viable embryo production is influenced by subjected parameters. There is no significant difference in number of viable embryo production when the mating pairs are subjected to different water temperature (p = 0.595). Besides that, different ratio of males to females in pairing up zebrafish does not influence the production of viable embryos (p = 0.254). However, there is significant increase in viable embryo production (p = 0.000) if the fish are exposed to longer length of light cycle. At the end of this study, UNIMAS fish facility can ensure a consistent supply of zebrafish embryos and adult stocks.