The Nicotine-Evoked Locomotor Response: A Behavioral Paradigm for Toxicity Screening in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryos and Eleutheroembryos Exposed to Methylmercury.

ABSTRACT: This study is an adaptation of the nicotine-evoked locomotor response (NLR) assay, which was originally utilized for phenotype-based neurotoxicity screening in zebrafish embryos. Zebrafish embryos do not exhibit spontaneous swimming until roughly 4 days post-fertilization (dpf), however, a robust swimming response can be induced as early as 36 hours post-fertilization (hpf) by means of acute nicotine exposure (30-240μM). Here, the NLR was tested as a tool for early detection of locomotor phenotypes in 36, 48 and 72 hpf mutant zebrafish embryos of the non-touch-responsive maco strain; this assay successfully discriminated mutant embryos from their non-mutant siblings. Then, methylmercury (MeHg) was used as a proof-of-concept neurotoxicant to test the effectiveness of the NLR assay as a scre

SUBMITTER: Mora-Zamorano FX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4849578 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature