Zebrafish, Medaka, and Other Small Fishes ― New Model Animals in Biology, Medicine, and Beyond

This book provides cutting-edge studies and technologies using small fishes, including zebrafish, medaka, and other fishes as new model animals for molecular biology, developmental biology, and medicine. It also introduces eccentric fish models that are pioneering new frontiers of biology.

Zebrafish and medaka have been developed as lower vertebrate model organisms because these small fish are easy to raise in the laboratory and are useful for the live imaging of the morphology and activity of cells and tissues in intact animals. By virtue of those specific advantages, fish studies have demonstrated the common features of vertebrates and raised further questions toward understanding the mystery of life.

The book consists of four parts: “Development and Cell Biology”, “Homeostasis and Reproduction”, “Clinical Models”, and “Eccentric Fish”. Together they describes the core area of small fish study – often considered mere zoology but which is actually proving to be the universal basis of life.

Written by leading scientists, the book helps readers to understand small fishes, inspires scientists to utilize small fishes in their studies, and encourages anyone who wants to participate in the large and fantastic world of small fish.

Hiromi Hirata has been a professor of chemistry and biological sciences at Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan, since 2015. He was awarded his Ph.D. by Kyoto University in 2000 for research related to the characterization of mammalian molecular chaperones. He then investigated the molecular basis of oscillatory gene expression during somitogenesis in mice. He extended his interests into the development of zebrafish motor systems when he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, USA. Professor Hirata started his own lab in 2010 at the National Institute of Genetics, Japan and eventually expanded the lab in the current university. The main focus of his research is the molecular mechanisms that govern the formation, plasticity, and aging of the neural circuits underlying sensorimotor integration in vertebrates.

Atsuo Iida has been an assistant professor of regeneration science and engineering at the Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, since 2012. Professor Iida obtained a Ph.D. from Nagoya University in 2006 for research related to DNA-based transposable elements in medaka. As a postdoctoral associate at Kyoto University, Dr. Iida initially examined various aspects of developmental biology using zebrafish, and then as an assistant professor he expanded his research to include viviparous reproduction utilizing redtail splitfin fish. His current interests include the regulatory mechanisms that govern blood vessel formation during zebrafish development as well as the mechanisms underlying viviparous reproduction in fish.