Our
laboratory is using zebrafish as a model system to study the regulation
of persistent olfactory bulb neurogenesis.
We are collaborating with Daniel Goldman, Ph.D., who developed
a transgenic zebrafish in which the a1-tubulin promoter drives expression of a green
fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter. This
promoter restricts GFP expression to newly generated or regenerating
neurons. Horizontal
sections through 3-5 week old transgenic zebrafish immunostained
for bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) after pulse BrdU labeling shows newly
generated,BrdU-labeled cells (left panel) in a pattern that overlaps
with immature, GFP-expressing neurons (right panel). The
newborn neurons are present in the midline telencephalon (Tel),
olfactory bulbs (OB) and olfactory epithelium (OE).
We are currently using a mutagenesis screen of these transgenic
zebrafish to identify genes that regulate forebrain neurogenesis.
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