Zebrafish in Comparative Context

Zebrafish in Comparative Context

Organized by Jacqueline F. Webb (Villanova Univ.) and Thomas F. Schilling (UC Irvine)

Funded by:

  • Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

Division of Vertebrate Morphology
Division of Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Division of Developmental & Cell Biology
Division of Systematics & Evolutionary Biology

On this page:

Overview

Symposium Speakers, Talk Titles and Lab Websites

Speakers in Complementary Sessions

Publication Plans

Useful Links


Overview

The zebrafish community, less than a generation old, is composed of a rapidly expanding group of investigators trained largely in the fields of developmental genetics and functional genomics. The primary goal of their work is to define the genetic mechanisms underlying vertebrate development. For a century or more, fish biologists have been trained as morphologists, systematists, physiologists, and ecologists, in order to understand the structural and functional diversity in fishes at all levels of biological organization. Despite their common interest in fishes, these two communities do not often have the opportunity to interact.  

The symposium “Zebrafish in Comparative Context” provided the opportunity for the zebrafish and comparative/ evolutionary biology communities to discuss issues of mutual interest. The goal was to address two questions:  1) How can a model species for developmental biology (i.e. zebrafish) provide conceptual and methodological contexts for asking fundamental questions in comparative and evolutionary biology?  2) How can a comparative (phylogenetic) approach allow the formulation of hypotheses concerning evolution of mechanisms of vertebrate development that can be tested in a well-established model species such as zebrafish?  Thus, the symposium represented an important first step in making the vast amount of developmental and genetic information about zebrafish more accessible to the comparative biology community, and discussing the relationship of a model organism to other fishes, and other vertebrates from a comparative/evolutionary approach.  The interpretation of mutant phenotypes can only benefit from a detailed knowledge of comparative anatomy. The process of evolution has already provided an array of “mutant” phenotypes demonstrating the huge range of morphological possibilities.  The ichthyology community and its literature remain the repositories of the vast reservoir of knowledge of morphological variation among species of fishes. The application of these intellectual resources to the zebrafish (and other fish models) can only broaden our understanding of developmental patterns and processes.

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Symposium Speakers (Alphabetical listing)

COOPER, Mark. Evolution of Gastrulation in the Actinopterygian (Ray-Finned) Fishes
Website: http://depts.washington.edu/fishscop/

FETCHO, Joseph. The comparative biology of spinal motor networks in zebrafish.
Website: http://www.nbb.cornell.edu/neurobio/Fetcho/index.htm

HALPERN, Marnie. Left-Right Asymmetry in the Zebrafish Brain.
Website: http://www.ciwemb.edu/labs/halpern/index.php

HERNANDEZ, Patricia.  Zebrafish: A model system for investigating the generation of novel feeding mechanisms.
Website: http://www.gwu.edu/~clade/faculty/hernandez/

KIMMEL, Charles.  Dorsoventral Patterning of Facial Bone Morphology
Website: http://www.neuro.uoregon.edu/kimmel/klab.html

KOCHER, Thomas. From Natural Systems to Laboratory Models: Comparative Genomics of Teleost Fishes
Website: http://hcgs.unh.edu/

MABEE, Paula. Integrating CToL-related studies with available phenotype and genomics databases for the zebrafish.
Website: http://www.usd.edu/biol/faculty/mabee/

MAYDEN, Richard. Phylogenetic Relationships of Danio within the Order Cypriniformes: A Framework for Comparative and Evolutionary Studies of a Model Species
Website: http://bio.slu.edu/mayden/home.html

MCCUNE, Amy. Insights from natural variation in Danio rerio
Website: http://www.eeb.cornell.edu/mccune/mccune.html

PARICHY, David. Evolutionary genetics of Danio pigment pattern development.
Website: http://protist.biology.washington.edu/dparichy/index.html

POSTLETHWAIT, John. A comparative analysis of the consequences of genome duplication in teleost fish.
Website: http://www.neuro.uoregon.edu/ionmain/htdocs/faculty/postleth.html

SCHILLING, Thomas.  Craniofacial development and evolution in gnathostomes
Website: http://devcell.bio.uci.edu/tschilling/

STOCK, David. Comparative studies of tooth development in teleost fishes
Website: http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/research/fac_stock.html

WEBB, Jacqueline.  Development of the Lateral Line System in Teleost Fishes: Zebrafish and Beyond
Website: http://www38.homepage.villanova.edu/jacqueline.webb/homepage.htm

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Speakers in Complementary Sessions

SANTINI, F. Was the fish specific genome duplication the cause of the high diversity of teleost fishes?

BIRD, NC*; HERNANDEZ, LC.  Origin of complex structures: Zebrafish as the new model organism for investigating morphological innovation

ALBERTSON, R. Craig*; STREELMAN, J. Todd; KOCHER, Thomas D.; YELICK, Pamela C.  Integration and Evolution of the Teleost Mandible: The Molecular Basis of Alternate Feeding Strategies

FRANZ-ODENDAAL, T.A. Growth, development, constraint and variation of the skeletal elements within the teleost eye  

CROLL, RP*; ROBERTSON, GN; MCGEE, CAS; SMITH, FM  Development of the swimbladder and its innervation in the zebrafish (Danio rerio)

LIAO, J. C.*; FETCHO, J.R. Identification of sensory spinal interneurons by using optical, genetic, and electrophysiological techniques in larval zebrafish

VIRTA, V.C.*; COOPER, Mark S. Ontogeny and Phylogeny of the Yolk Extension in Cypriniform Fishes

STAAB, KL*; HERNANDEZ, LP.  Evolutionary developmental biology of the kinethmoid: Using zebrafish to investigate the development and evolution of a unique mechanism of premaxillary protrusion

ROGERS, S.A.*; CHANG, Y.  Evolution of Regulatory Elements that Control Tissues-Specific Expression of Recombination Activation Genes

HULSEY, CD*; FRASER, GJ; STREELMAN, JT Evolution and Development of Complex Biomechanical Systems: 300 Million Years of Fish Jaws and Teeth

CROTWELL, P.L.*; MABEE, P.M. A comparative analysis of gene expression patterns conserved in segmentation of fish and tetrapod skeletons

JACKMAN, W.R.*; STOCK, D.W. Transgenic analysis of the mechanism of cypriniform oral tooth loss

HURLEY, IA*; SCEMAMA, JL; PRINCE, VE.  The mechanism and consequences of duplicate gene preservation – a comparison of hoxb1 duplicates across teleost fish

WISE, S. B.*; STOCK, D.W.  Bone morphogenetic protein expression, regulation, and function in teleost tooth development and evolution

SCHLUETER, P.J.*; DUAN, C.  Overlapping and distinct functions of the duplicated zebrafish insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) genes in early development

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Publication Plans

Abstracts of symposium and contributed papers and a synopsis of the symposium will be published in the SICB journal, Integrative and Comparative Biology.  Symposium papers will be published as a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Zoology – Molecular and Developmental Evolution.

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Useful Links

American Association of Anatomists (www.anatomy.org).

American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (www.asih.org)

Cypriniform Tree of Life Project (www.cypriniformes.org)

Early Life History Section of the American Fisheries Society (www2.ncsu.edu/elhs/index.html)

Society for Developmental Biology (www.sdbonline.org)

ZFIN (www.zfin.org)

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