Use of transgenic zebrafish reporter lines to study calcium signalling in development

Calcium signals are associated with many of the events common to animal development. Understanding the role of these calcium signals requires the ability to visualise and manipulate calcium levels in the developing embryo. Recent work has led to the development of sensitive protein-based probes that can be used to generate transgenic animals for the analysis of calcium signalling in vivo. This paper focuses on the use of genetically encoded calcium probes to follow calcium signals in zebrafish. It reviews progress and speculates on the potential for use in the future.