Circadian clock mediates light/dark preference in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been a widely used vertebrate animal model in developmental biology and behavioral neuroscience, but knowledge about some of its basic behaviors, for example, light/dark preference, is still controversial. Appropriate preference for light or dark environments can be crucial for an animal's survival, so we hypothesize that zebrafish may have its light/dark preference varied with the circadian clock. In this present work, we tested the hypothesis by recording the light/dark preference in a two-compartment tank continuously for over 60 h. We found that the light avoidance of fish generally increases with time from morning (8:00am) to midnight (2:00am), and then decreases with time from midnight (2:00am) to morning (8:00am), exhibiting a clear circadian-like trend in the light/dark preference. As melatonin can mediate circadian clock output and promote sleep in zebrafish, by adding extra melatonin at around 9:00am on the third day, the mean proportion of time fish spent in the dark area was increased significantly. Our results demonstrate that the circadian clock plays a significant role in regulating the light/dark preference in zebrafish, which provides valuable insights into understanding the metabolism mechanism underlying the neurobehavior, and facilitate further studies related to the neurobiology of normal and pathological behavior.