The zebrafish Danio rerio is a common aquarium fish from the tropics that we utilize for vertebrate developmental genetic study. These are some of the questions you can address and might be able to answer during this laboratory as you study the embryos and gain familiarity with what they look like as they progress through early development. The nonyolky blastodisc segregates towards the animal pole.
Genes begin to be transcribed.
Somite pairs form sequentially. Place the illuminating lamp rather close to the microscope to keep the fish embryos warm as they develop. An ideal temperature is about 28 o C, several degrees above ambient room temperature. You will be able to gently roll the individual embryos about in the dish using a small tool such as a straight pin, but take care not to damage the chorion. Using this technique, you can observe the cleaving cells from different angles.