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Cell Biology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

Dissection and Lateral Mounting of Zebrafish Embryos: Analysis of Spinal Cord Development

DOI: 10.3791/50703-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Dissect and prepare zebrafish embryos for lateral mounting
  • ✓ Mount embryos to optimize spinal cord visualization
  • ✓ Analyze gene expression patterns and axon pathfinding in mounted tissue
Protocol

Biopharma Insights Developmental processes such as proliferation, patterning, differentiation, and axon guidance can be readily modeled in the zebrafish spinal cord. In this article, we describe a mounting procedure for zebrafish embryos, which optimizes visualization of these events.

Difficulty
intermediate
Total time
~45 min per embryo (dissection, mounting, imaging setup)
Model organism
Zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos

Steps

1
Dissect and mount zebrafish embryos laterally

Remove chorion and carefully position zebrafish embryos on a glass slide in lateral orientation. Secure embryo to optimize visualization of the spinal cord and developmental structures.

▶ 01:19
2
Analyze gene expression and axon pathfinding

Image the laterally mounted spinal cord using fluorescence microscopy to visualize gene expression patterns, axon guidance, and neural development. Document proliferation, patterning, and differentiation events.

▶ 03:31
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