Due to their relatively small size, zebrafish are easily stained in whole mount and observed by light microscopy. In addition, they require minimal space and money to raise, compared to other animals such as the labratory rat. In short, zebrafish are an ideal organism for us to use in this study. The following procedures are being used to investigate those questions presented above. The fish are mated in the fish facility and then viable eggs are retrieved for our study.
Alcian blue is used to stain cartilage and alizarin red is used to stain bone.
For long term storage and observation, they are placed in pure glycerin. From a complete collection of such drawings, we hope to gain a comprehensive understanding of the developement of these structures. This understanding could then lead to further comparitive studies carried out to reveal the origin of mutations. For instance, one can imagine that a mutation affecting head bone and cartilage morphology could be viable.