Presenter(s): Matthew Dawson—Biology/Psychology
Faculty Mentor(s): Philip Washbourne
Session 5.5: McNair Scholars Presentations
The zebrafish has been long used in research to examine the effects of manipulating genes using tools such as the CRISPR/Cas9 system . Nitroreductase is an enzyme, native to E . coli, commonly used in biology for cell specific ablation . By inserting the gene for producing nitroreductase, as well as Gal4/UAS system, one can achieve temporal and spatial selectivity for ablation . After cell ablation, fish were placed into a virtual social behavior assay to look for differences in social interactions . Fish were then terminally sampled and stained using immunohistochemistry and imaged using the Spinning Disk Confocal microscope . Using these images, an average brain was constructed allowing for mapping of the neurons necessary for social behavior . This study aims to begin characterizing the neural circuitry for social behavior in zebrafish .