PUBLICATION
A confocal study of spinal interneurons in living larval zebrafish
- Authors
- Hale, M.E., Ritter, D.A., and Fetcho, J.R.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-010807-17
- Date
- 2001
- Source
- The Journal of comparative neurology 437(1): 1-16 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Fetcho, Joseph R., Hale, Melina, Ritter, Dale
- Keywords
- spinal cord; optical imaging; swimming; escape; Mauthner; central pattern generator
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Axons/ultrastructure
- Cell Size
- Dendrites/ultrastructure
- Escape Reaction
- Interneurons/ultrastructure*
- Larva/cytology
- Microscopy, Confocal
- Neural Pathways
- Spinal Cord/cytology*
- Swimming
- Zebrafish/anatomy & histology*
- Zebrafish/growth & development
- PubMed
- 11477593 Full text @ J. Comp. Neurol.
Citation
Hale, M.E., Ritter, D.A., and Fetcho, J.R. (2001) A confocal study of spinal interneurons in living larval zebrafish. The Journal of comparative neurology. 437(1):1-16.
Abstract
We used confocal microscopy to examine the morphology of spinal interneurons in living larval zebrafish with the aim of providing a morphological foundation for generating functional hypotheses. Interneurons were retrogradely labeled by injections of fluorescent dextrans into the spinal cord, and the three-dimensional morphology of living cells was reconstructed from confocal optical sections through the transparent fish. At least eight types of interneurons are present in the spinal cord of larval zebrafish; four of these are described here for the first time. The newly discovered cell types include classes of commissural neurons with axons that ascend, descend, and bifurcate in the contralateral spinal cord. Our reexamination of previously described cell types revealed functionally relevant features of their morphology, such as undescribed commissural axons, as well as the relationships between the trajectories of the axons of interneurons and the descending Mauthner axons. In addition to describing neurons, we surveyed their morphology at multiple positions along the spinal cord and found longitudinal changes in their distribution and sizes. For example, some cell types increase in size from rostral to caudal, whereas others decrease. Our observations lead to predictions of the roles of some of these interneurons in motor circuits. These predictions can be tested with the combination of functional imaging, single-cell ablation, and genetic approaches that make zebrafish a powerful model system for studying neuronal circuits.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping