9605044 This award provides short term support for a collection of over 500 mutant zebrafish recently isolated by the grantee. The funds will support distribution of mutants to other researchers on request, and the preparation of frozen sperm of each mutant strain that will be used to help found a permanent collection at the University of Oregon sometime in the next year. Over the last few years, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as a promising model system for genetic studies of vertebrate development. This small tropical fish has a generation time of about 3 months and lays large numbers of eggs. The eggs are fertilized externally and develop into transparent embryos. For these reasons, the fish is amenable to genetic analysis and experimental manipulation at a cost significantly less than that of the mouse, the only other widely used model system for genetic studies of vertebrate development. Although the development of the requisite techniques is relatively recent, a large and growing number of investigators have begun to use the organism.
