page_title: Zebrafish
section_title: Scientific research
hierarchical_section_title: Zebrafish / Scientific research
caption_attribution_description: English: A Zebrafish Pigment Mutant. The mutant called bleached blond was produced by insertional mutagenesis. The embryos in the picture are four days old. At the top is a wild-type embryo, below is the mutant. The mutant lacks black pigment in the melanocytes because it fails to synthesise melanin properly.
context_page_description: The zebrafish is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio.
  The zebrafish is an important and widely used vertebrate model organism in scientific research, for example in drug development, in particular pre-clinical development. It is also notable for its regenerative abilities, and has been modified by researchers to produce many transgenic strains.
context_section_description: D. rerio is a common and useful scientific model organism for studies of vertebrate development and gene function. Its use as a laboratory animal was pioneered by the American molecular biologist George Streisinger and his colleagues at the University of Oregon in the 1970s and 1980s; Streisinger's zebrafish clones were among the earliest successful vertebrate clones created. Its importance has been consolidated by successful large-scale forward genetic screens (commonly referred to as the Tübingen/Boston screens). The fish has a dedicated online database of genetic, genomic, and developmental information, the Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN).  The Zebrafish International Resource Center (ZIRC) is a genetic resource repository with 29,250 alleles available for distribution to the research community. D. rerio is also one of the few fish species to have been sent into space.
  Research with D. rerio has yielded advances in the fields of developmental biology, oncology, toxicology, reproductive studies, teratology, genetics, neurobiology, environmental sciences, stem cell research, regenerative medicine, muscular dystrophies and evolutionary theory.
caption: A zebrafish pigment mutant (bottom) produced by insertional mutagenesis.[9] A wild-type embryo (top) is shown for comparison. The mutant lacks black pigment in its melanocytes because it is unable to synthesize melanin properly.
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