Alcohol exposure during embryonic development: An opportunity to conduct systematic developmental time course...

Ethanol affects numerous neurobiological processes depending upon the developmental stage at which it reaches the vertebrate embryo. Exposure time dependency may explain the variable severity and manifestation of life-long symptoms observed in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) patients. Characterization of behavioural deficits will help us understand developmental stage-dependency and its underlying biological mechanisms. Here we highlight pioneering studies that model FASD using zebrafish, including those that demonstrated developmental stage-dependency of alcohol effects on some behaviours. We also succinctly review the more expansive mammalian literature, briefly discuss potential developmental stage dependent biological mechanisms alcohol alters, and review some of the disadvantages of mammalian systems versus the zebrafish. We stress that the temporal control of alcohol administration in the externally developing zebrafish gives unprecedented precision and is a major advantage of this species over other model organisms employed so far. We also emphasize that the zebrafish is well suited for high throughput screening and will allow systematic exploration of embryonic-stage dependent alcohol effects via mutagenesis and drug screens.