Zebrafish
The importance of zebra fish lies in their ability in helping to create basic understanding of the various biological processes that occur behind muscular dystrophy. The success in aiding with such studies have made it possible for medical breakthrough in treating diseases as well as understanding them so as to prevent or treat ailments such as cancer. The benefit of zebra fish has to do with the similarities that they have to human genetics and could help in discovering diseases as a result of the similarities. A limitation however exists in that the zebra fish lack various mammalian organs such as lungs, prostate, breast tissue and other organs that need to be studied in order to better protect them from diseases that affect them specifically (Burke, 2016).
The zebra fish belong to the order Cypriniformes and are in the minow family. Their size ranges between 2.5 cm and 4cm and have stripes along their body that contributed to their name, zebra fish (Goldsmith & Jobin, 2012). The benefits of their general features have to do with their similarities to humans in terms of major organs and tissue which make it easier to study and better understand the human body. They have a lifecycle of about three months. The male is present during ovulation and spawning and fertilizes the eggs outside the female's body which become transparent immediately after fertilization. After 36 hours, the major organs appear and a yolk is formed which divides into thousands of tiny cells which move to the side of the yolk to form the head and tail. The fish consumes the egg as it grows and becomes an adult in about three months (Burke, 2016).
The zebra fish are said to share 70 percent gene similarities with human beings as being vertebrae means they also possess major tissues and organs that are similar to those of human beings. An example is their eyes, kidneys, muscle and even blood which make them ideal models for human bodies. When trying to identify a mutation in a person's gene that could result to the person getting a disease, doctors use DNA sequencing (Burke, 2016). To determine if losing a certain function for a specific gene could cause the symptoms present in a patient, the gene is knocked out from the zebra fish first as the test subject and then observations on the impact it will have on humans is determined by the observations made from the fish.
The popularity in using zebra fish has to do with the fact that their eggs develop externally. They are also transparent and this makes it easier for scientists to study and analyze. The eggs can be easily manipulated and since they take short periods to develop, the study is conducted faster and results attained quicker. They are also easily accessible as they are being sold even in pet shops (Brennan, 2014).
In comparison to humans, the zebra fish have two eyes, a spinal cord, liver, heart, teeth, blood and other organs found in the human body. The genes that are needed to grow such organs are also closely related between the two and as a result, any disease that will affect the zebra fish in the test subjects is also likely to have the same results when exposed to the human body. The downside however is the lack of mammalian organs such as the breast tissue and lungs which make it impossible to carry out tests on the fish with the aim of treating humans diseases that affect these organs (Burke, 2016).
References
Brennan C, (2014) "Five reasons why zebrafish make excellent research models" retrieved from, https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/news/five-reasons-why-zebrafish-make-excellent-research- models
Burke E, (2016) "Why use zebrafish to study human diseases?" Intramural Research Program, retrieved from, https://irp.nih.gov/blog/post/2016/08/why-use-zebrafish-to-study-human- diseases
Goldsmith R and Jobin C, (2012) "Think small: Zebrafish as a model system of human pathology" Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, retrieved from, https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2012/817341/
