Carl Smith

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The zebrafish a model of behaviour or just
another red herring?
Carl Smith
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The zebrafish a behavioural model?
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Why zebrafish should be used

• Genetic developmental information tools
• Well resolved phylogeny
• Evolutionary studies
• Its a carp
• Aquaculture
• Research
• Great interest

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and why they shouldnt

• Its behaviour is poorly described
• Limited behavioural syndromes (shoaling)
• We know little of its natural biology
• Evidence for variation among populations?

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What are zebrafish good for?

• Physiological mechanisms of behaviour
• Ecology of vision
• Neural plasticity
• Learning
• Role of colour patterns
• Shoaling
• Mate choice
• Speciation
• Role of olfactory cues

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What do we need to do?

• More behaviour studies
• More field-based studies
• Selection experiments
• Seek and catalogue natural variation
• Morphological
• Physiological
• Behavioural

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Conclusions

• Goal to understand the genetic basis of behaviour
• Need an understanding of adaptive behaviour
• We need a fuller understanding of zebrafish
  ecology
• Zebrafish a key model with numerous traits that
  make them ideal
• We can exploit these if we fill in the gaps in
  our knowledge

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Thank you!