Division of Genetics and Genomics, The Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America.
Department of Neurology, Division of Neuromuscular Diseases, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2018 Jun 26;13(6):e0199712. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199712. eCollection 2018.
Zebrafish are a preferred vertebrate model for delineating genotype-phenotype relationships. One of the most studied features of zebrafish is their exceptional swimming ability. By 7 days postfertilization (dpf), zebrafish spend over two-thirds of their time engaged in spontaneous swimming activity and several months later they are capable of attaining some of the fastest swimming velocities relative to body length ever recorded in the laboratory. However, laboratory-assembled flumes capable of achieving the slow flow velocities characteristics of larvae as well as the relatively fast maximal velocities of adults have not been described in sufficient detail to allow easy replication. Here we describe an easily assembled, open-source zebrafish-scaled flume for assessing swimming performance. The flume uses two independent spherical-impeller pumps modulated by a microcontroller to achieve flow velocities ranging from 1 to 70 cm s-1. The microcontroller also monitors water temperature and flow velocity and sends these data to a personal computer for real-time display and storage. Incremental protocols for assessing maximal swimming speed (Umax) were developed, stored in custom software, and then uploaded to the microcontroller in order to assess performance of larval (14, 21, 28 dpf), juvenile (35, 42 dpf), and adult (8, 22 month) zebrafish. The flume had sufficient range and sensitivity to detect developmental changes in Umax of larvae and juveniles, an 18-24% faster Umax of adult males vs. females, and a 14-20% age-related reduction in Umax for the oldest zebrafish. Detailed information is provided to assemble and operate this low-cost, versatile, and reliable tool for assessing zebrafish swimming performance.
斑马鱼是用于描绘基因型-表型关系的首选脊椎动物模型。斑马鱼最受研究的特征之一是其出色的游泳能力。在受精后 7 天（dpf），斑马鱼超过三分之二的时间都在进行自发游泳活动，几个月后，它们能够达到实验室记录的相对体长最快的游泳速度。然而，能够实现幼虫特征的缓慢流速以及相对较快的成年最大流速的实验室组装水槽尚未被充分详细地描述，无法轻松复制。在这里，我们描述了一种易于组装的、开源的斑马鱼规模水槽，用于评估游泳性能。该水槽使用两个独立的球形叶轮泵，由微控制器调制，以实现 1 至 70 cm s-1 的流速。微控制器还监测水温和流速，并将这些数据发送到个人计算机进行实时显示和存储。为了评估最大游泳速度（Umax），我们开发了递增协议，将其存储在自定义软件中，然后上传到微控制器中，以评估幼虫（14、21、28 dpf）、幼鱼（35、42 dpf）和成年（8、22 个月）斑马鱼的性能。该水槽具有足够的范围和灵敏度，可以检测到幼虫和幼鱼 Umax 的发育变化、成年雄性比雌性快 18-24%的 Umax 以及最年长的斑马鱼 Umax 减少 14-20%。我们提供了详细的信息来组装和操作这种低成本、多功能且可靠的工具，用于评估斑马鱼的游泳性能。
