The dissection of biological processes that underlie development and human disease pathology rely to a large extent on the use of model species. Foremost among vertebrate model species is the zebrafish. We are currently developing two research themes that have as their common ground the use of the zebrafish. The first of these, termed chemical genomics, involves the biological assessment of novel chemical compounds expressed by New Zealand marine species on gene expression in the developing zebrafish. The second theme, functional genomics, involves the development of targeted mutagenesis as well as transient gene knockdown in the zebrafish in order to model human disorders. Both themes involve the assessment of effects at a global (genome-wide or system-wide) gene expression level in a vertebrate model species; see Figure opposite.
The goal of these research programmes is to establish a microarray platform of expressed sequences of the zebrafish. This platform will allow the effects of modulated gene expression to be determined on the developmental programme of the zebrafish. In this way, the zebrafish offers a unique resource of bioprofiling.