Fishing for genes influencing vertebrate behavior: zebrafish making headway

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been a favorite model of developmental biologists and geneticists, but only recently have investigators begun to appreciate its usefulness in behavior genetics. Papers focusing on the behavior or brain function of this species were once extremely rare, but during the past decade rapid growth has taken place. Despite the increased interest, however, the number of studies devoted to the analysis of the behavior of this species is still orders of magnitude less than those conducted on more traditional laboratory subjects including the rat and the mouse. The authors review selected literature and demonstrate that zebrafish is an excellent subject for behavior genetics research, especially in the area of forward genetics (mutagenesis).