Transgenic fluorescent zebrafish lines that have revolutionized biomedical research

Abstract

Since its debut in the biomedical research fields in 1981, zebrafish have been used as a vertebrate model organism in more than 40,000 biomedical research studies. Especially useful are zebrafish lines expressing fluorescent proteins in a molecule, intracellular organelle, cell or tissue specific manner because they allow the visualization and tracking of molecules, intracellular organelles, cells or tissues of interest in real time and in vivo. In this review, we summarize representative transgenic fluorescent zebrafish lines that have revolutionized biomedical research on signal transduction, the craniofacial skeletal system, the hematopoietic system, the nervous system, the urogenital system, the digestive system and intracellular organelles.