Long-term behavioral alterations following embryonic alcohol exposure in three zebrafish populations

Fetal alcohol exposure may lead to a condition known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which comprises a set of consequences, including cognitive and behavioral impairments. Although zebrafish has been applied as a reliable model for studying FASD, there is no approach to the disorder's ontogeny and population differences. Here, we evaluated the behavioral outcomes of AB, Outbred (OB), and Tübingen (TU) zebrafish populations embryonically exposed to alcohol throughout the development to the adult stage. We exposed 24hpf eggs to 0 %, 0.5 %, or 1.0 % alcohol for 2 h. Fish were let grow and locomotor and anxiety-like behaviors were tested in a novel tank at larval - 6dpf, juvenile - 45dpf, and adult- 90dpf stages. At 6dpf, both AB and OB treated with 1.0 % alcohol showed hyperactivity, while 0.5 % and 1.0 % TU fish exhibited hypolocomotion. At 45dpf, AB and TU fish maintained the larval pattern of locomotion. At the adult stage - 90dpf, both AB and TU populations showed increased locomotor activity and anxiogenic responses, while the OB population did not show altered behavior. Our results show for the first time that zebrafish populations exhibit behavioral differences in response to embryonic alcohol exposure and that it varies along animals' ontogeny. AB fish showed the most consistent behavioral pattern through developmental stages, TU fish showed behavioral changes only in adulthood, and OB population showed high interindividual variability. These data reinforce that different populations of zebrafish are better adapted to translational studies, offering reliable results in contrast to domesticated OB populations obtained from farms, which exhibit more variable genomes.