The zebrafish brain: a neuroanatomical comparison with the goldfish

摘要: The zebrafish Danio rerio is an important model system for genetic and developmental studies of the vertebrate central nervous system. Considerable knowledge concerning embryonic development has accumulated in recent years. However, there apparent lack information on organization adult brain. We have therefore recently studied detail neuroanatomy zebrafish. Here we compare brains closely related neurobiologically well-investigated goldfish, Carassius auratus. Two sensory systems, visual gustatory were identified as differing gross morphological histological levels two species. goldfish shows simple (evolutionarily reduced) pattern pretectal organization, its massively enlarged. pretectum conforms to this simplified pattern, although retention some ancestral characters indicates a lesser degree reduction compared goldfish. many similarities with evolutionarily derived functionally specialized peripheral are missing zebrafish, indicating less