Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, M1C 1A4, Canada.
Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4QD, UK.
F1000Res. 2024 Aug 20;13:168. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.134520.2. eCollection 2024.
There are a variety of published standard methods and water chemistry recommendations for zebrafish ( ) husbandry, but empirical evidence for their justification is often lacking, as is information on some variables that have important biological effects on fish. Importantly, these different recommendations could contribute to variability in results and fish welfare between or within institutions.
Here we document the current range of water chemistry used by various research institutions around the world and report initial findings on their effects on the development and growth of zebrafish. Over 40 institutes responded to a survey that revealed a large variation in water chemistry used for zebrafish husbandry including differences in the set-points and acceptable ranges for temperature, pH and conductivity. In subsequent experiments, zebrafish ( , WIK) embryos/larvae exposed to a large range of salt concentrations (50μM to 10mM Na or 30 - 2500 μS/cm) and CO levels (400 - 8,000 μatm).
Larvae exposed to the lowest salt concentration (5 μM Na or < 30μS/cm) had a slower response to touch and their swim bladders were not inflated. Larvae exposed to 5-100 μM Na were 5 % shorter in total body length than those exposed to higher salt concentrations (>100 μM Na ). Zebrafish embryo/larvae exposed to intermediate pCO values (~2000 μatm) were 1 to 3.5% longer than those exposed to either ambient (400 μatm) or higher (4000 μatm) pCO , but pCO did not affect developmental endpoints up to 4 dpf.
Overall, we highlight the magnitude of variation in water chemistry used within zebrafish research and provide some empirical evidence to show that not all of these water conditions might be optimal for developing zebrafish and reproducibility of research, although further research is necessary to determine longer-term effects of water chemistry on older larvae, juveniles and adults.
有各种已发表的标准方法和水化学建议用于斑马鱼（）养殖，但缺乏对其合理性的经验证据，也缺乏对一些对鱼类有重要生物学影响的变量的信息。重要的是，这些不同的建议可能导致不同机构之间或机构内部结果和鱼类福利的可变性。
本文记录了世界各地不同研究机构目前使用的水化学范围，并报告了它们对斑马鱼发育和生长影响的初步发现。超过 40 个研究所对一项调查做出了回应，该调查显示，用于斑马鱼养殖的水化学差异很大，包括对温度、pH 值和电导率的设定点和可接受范围的差异。在随后的实验中，斑马鱼（，WIK）胚胎/幼虫暴露于大范围的盐浓度（50μM 至 10mM Na 或 30-2500μS/cm）和 CO 水平（400-8000μatm）。
暴露于最低盐浓度（5μM Na 或 <30μS/cm）的幼虫对触摸的反应较慢，其鳔未充气。暴露于 5-100μM Na 的幼虫的全长比暴露于较高盐浓度（>100μM Na ）的幼虫短 5%。斑马鱼胚胎/幼虫暴露于中间 pCO （~2000μatm）比暴露于环境（400μatm）或较高（4000μatm）pCO 的胚胎/幼虫长 1%至 3.5%，但 pCO 对 4 dpf 之前的发育终点没有影响。
总的来说，我们强调了斑马鱼研究中使用的水化学变化的幅度，并提供了一些经验证据，表明并非所有这些水条件都可能最适合发育斑马鱼和研究的重现性，尽管需要进一步研究来确定水化学对较老的幼虫、幼鱼和成鱼的长期影响。
