Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using zebrafish as a model organism to study human diseases.

Answer 1

Zebrafish as a human model:

1.They are small tropical fish ((2.5cm to 4cm long)mostly found in South Asia)

2 . It is excellent model organism for development and disease studies.

3. They are very well characterized genetically with genome size 1.5Gbp.

Advantages:

1.Easily grown, maintenance cost is significantly lower than other mammals models.

2. Maintained in lab conditions and produce young all year around.

3 They are commonly used to study the early stage of development.

4.They are well suited for embryonic studies because of their relatively transparent body during the larval development stage. This provide excellent optical clarity making them a practical choice for easy observations.

5. Whole zebrafish embroyo can be imagined in a single frame .

6 . Zebrafish possess most of the major organ systems of vertebrates like human heart, eyes and kidneys hence organ development and problems like diseases in that organs were studied .

7. Blood vessels also viewed under relatively low magnification.

8. Approximately 80% of the genes involved in human diseases have an equivalent in zebrafish.

9. Many of the genes and critical pathways that are required to grow these features are highly conserved between human and zebrafish. This any type of disease that causes changes in humans could theoretically be modeled in zebrafish.

10. Due to the good characterisation of zebra fish genes, it is possible to target the specific genes, turns them on or off , or introduce foreign genes; this makes zebrafish very versatile for modern research and disease model.

Disadvantages:

1. Several mammalian organs are not present in the zebrafish, including breast tissues, lungs and prostate.

2. They are greatly influenced by their environment and many environment variables like temperature, lighting , population density , water quality and nutrients,must be tightly controlled in order to accurately interpret data obtained.

3. Physiology of zebrafish is not identical to human.