Anatomie a funkce neoronálních okruhů sluchového systému u ryby dánio pruhované

Abstract

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is an animal model used in a variety of studies of function and development of neural circuits. The organization of the brain of this small teleost resembles the organization of the mammalian brain, while being sufficiently compact to allow imaging of the whole intact brain. Zebrafish is becoming increasingly popular in systems neuroscience due to the fact that embryo of the fish is transparent during early development which makes it accessible for optical imaging. Olfactory bulb (OB) of zebrafish has been an amenable brain region for studying the developmental changes in neural circuit computations. OB undergoes drastic changes during development, in terms of the number of neurons and the composition. Another advantage of OB is its small size, which makes it possible to image the anatomy and function of this brain region exhaustively using confocal or two-photon microscopes. This project consists of anatomical and functional tracking of single mitral cells (primary output neurons) in the olfactory bulb in the brain of a zebrafish. Looking at individual cells provides complimentary information to that already gathered in the population studies in the laboratory. This study is conducted on few transgenic fish lines, which label individual neurons in OB. The fact that only a small number of neurons is marked enables the precise identification and tracking of the neurons over a period of time (days to weeks). In order to measure the changes in olfactory computations of individual neurons , the living zebrafish larvae is stimulated with a variety of odors, such as amino acids, bile acids, nucleotides and fish food which, are associated with different stereotyped responses. The main aim of the research is to understand the fundamental principles underlying the function and development of neural circuits. The study of changes of the neural circuits in olfactory bulb may help reveal how sensory information is processed in zebrafish and ultimately, in human brain to allow further research about neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases.

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is an animal model used in a variety of studies of function and development of neural circuits. The organization of the brain of this small teleost resembles the organization of the mammalian brain, while being sufficiently compact to allow imaging of the whole intact brain. Zebrafish is becoming increasingly popular in systems neuroscience due to the fact that embryo of the fish is transparent during early development which makes it accessible for optical imaging. Olfactory bulb (OB) of zebrafish has been an amenable brain region for studying the developmental changes in neural circuit computations. OB undergoes drastic changes during development, in terms of the number of neurons and the composition. Another advantage of OB is its small size, which makes it possible to image the anatomy and function of this brain region exhaustively using confocal or two-photon microscopes. This project consists of anatomical and functional tracking of single mitral cells (primary output neurons) in the olfactory bulb in the brain of a zebrafish. Looking at individual cells provides complimentary information to that already gathered in the population studies in the laboratory. This study is conducted on few transgenic fish lines, which label individual neurons in OB. The fact that only a small number of neurons is marked enables the precise identification and tracking of the neurons over a period of time (days to weeks). In order to measure the changes in olfactory computations of individual neurons , the living zebrafish larvae is stimulated with a variety of odors, such as amino acids, bile acids, nucleotides and fish food which, are associated with different stereotyped responses. The main aim of the research is to understand the fundamental principles underlying the function and development of neural circuits. The study of changes of the neural circuits in olfactory bulb may help reveal how sensory information is processed in zebrafish and ultimately, in human brain to allow further research about neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases.