Fish Resources

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National Resource for Zebrafish •
Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center

National Resource for Zebrafish

Research Emphasis/Objectives

The objective of the Zebrafish International Resource Center external link, opens in new window is to provide a central repository for materials and information about zebrafish research, as well as a stock center for wild-type and mutant strains of zebrafish (Danio rerio). Materials and zebrafish strains are distributed to the research community. Pathology services are provided for diseased fish. Standards and procedures for maintaining healthy strains of zebrafish are being developed, and a manual for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases affecting zebrafish is being prepared.

Services Provided

Animals

Healthy stocks of zebrafish and frozen sperm are maintained and distributed to the research community. Strains of wild-type fish and lines carrying mutations and transgenes are accepted from the research community, maintained, and distributed on request. Researchers are welcome to visit the resource center to screen the collection for mutations of interest or to learn procedures. Advice about zebrafish health is provided. Diseased fish and tissue samples may be sent to the resource center for pathology analysis. The center also provides routine sentinel or quality control testing of zebrafish from healthy laboratory colonies (e.g., to fulfill IACUC health status monitoring).

Biological Materials

Antibodies, gene probes, and other markers to analyze wild-type and mutant stocks as well as zebrafish cell lines are received, stored, and distributed.

Informatics

The center maintains an online database (ZFIN external link, opens in new window ) of information about zebrafish research, including information about zebrafish genetics, genomics, and development. Information about the resources and services provided by the resource center is available, as well as a listing of zebrafish researchers, laboratories, and publications. ZFIN integrates information about the genetic map and sequence being generated by the zebrafish genome initiative and provides links to related information about genes in other species-specific databases. Researchers can use ZFIN to register and submit to the nomenclature committee new names for mutant alleles and for genes identified by molecular cloning.

Contact Information

Zebrafish International Resource Center
5274 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-5274

Web site: zfin.org/zirc external link, opens in new window

Grant No.: P40 RR12546

Principal Investigator
Monte Westerfield, Ph.D.
541-346-4607; Fax: 541-346-4548
E-mail: monte@uoneuro.uoregon.edu

Additional Contact
Erin Quinn
541-346-6028; Fax: 541-346-6151
E-mail: erin@zfin.org

Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center

Research Emphasis/Objectives

The Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center external link, opens in new window (XGSC) provides the research community with animals from 65 pedigreed parental lines, representing 23 species, in large numbers according to the specifications of each investigator. The center will serve as a catalyst for continued field studies aimed at identification and preservation of new Xiphophorus species before their demise due to habitat destruction. The stock center serves as the bridge between production of genetically managed research animals and their eventual dissemination and use in research projects.

Current Research

The stock center is continuing saturation of the Xiphophorus gene map and development of expressed sequence tag (EST) markers providing investigators with comparative mapping data to approach complex scientific questions. Ongoing efforts involve molecular characterization of physical genetic markers (microsatellite and ESTs) informative for gene mapping and genetic analyses in several commonly used Xiphophorus interspecies crosses.

The stock center also is establishing technology that will allow cryopreservation of Xiphophorus sperm samples and thereby provide a preservation program where the XGSC maintains the genetic heritage of all Xiphophorus strains and species. The unique physiology of Xiphophorus sperm has limited previous efforts at freezing of sperm for long-term storage using standard protocols. In collaboration with Dr. Terry Tiersch of Louisiana State University, recent advances in cryopreservation of fish sperm are being studied to develop protocols allowing long-term sperm storage and retrieval of active sperm samples.

Services Provided

Since its establishment more than 70 years ago, the XGSC has provided pedigreed fish from more than 60 genetic strains to scientists and aquarists around the world. Scientists in more than 40 laboratories in the United States, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Colombia, and Germany work on Xiphophorus genetics and depend on strains available from the XGSC.

Backcross hybrid tissues and nucleic acid panels are being developed and will be available to investigators. Primer pair sequences corresponding to genetic markers and assay information for several interspecies crosses will be made available to the research community.

In addition to supplying strains and providing consultation on husbandry and genetic questions, the XGSC produces custom interspecies hybrids (both first generation F1, and backcross hybrid generation BC1) for a variety of projects, shipping hundreds of such fish each year. The XGSC will assist researchers in performing detailed genetic mapping analyses on fish samples where a collaborating researcher has scored a phenotype of interest.

Contact Information

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Texas State University
419 Centennial Hall
San Marcos, TX 78666-4616

Web site: xiphophorus.org external link, opens in new window

Grant No.: P40 RR017072

Principal Investigator and Director
Ronald B. Walter, Ph.D.
512-245-0361; Fax: 512-245-1922
E-mail: RWalter@txstate.edu

Additional Contact
Leona Hazelwood
Stock Center Manager
512-245-8469; Fax: 512-245-1922
E-mail: LH24@txstate.edu

Ordering Information

See contact listed above.