Danio rerio as a Native Host Model for Understanding Pathophysiology of Vibrio cholerae

Vibrio cholerae is an aquatic bacterium that causes the human disease cholera as well as milder forms of diarrhea. V. cholerae is found in the environment in association with a variety of aquatic animals, including vertebrate fish. Here we describe the use of zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model for the pathogenic life cycle of V. cholerae. Being that fish are natural hosts for V. cholerae, the model provides several significant advantages over existing mammalian models that are not natural hosts.