Poster Presentation 46th Lorne Genome Conference 2025

What has closely related species taught us about the zebrafish (Danio rerio) (#227)

Stanislava Wolf Profant 1 , Tor Erik Jørgensen 1 , Lars Martin Jakt 1 , Igor Szczepan Babiak 1 , Steinar Daae Johansen 1
  1. Nord University, Bodø, NORWAY, Norway

Danio rerio is a widely utilized model organism, particularly in molecular evolution and developmental studies. However, the sex determination of this species remains an area of interest. The focus has been on chromosome 4, that contains a sex-linked region and has similar properties to known sex chromosomes (Anderson et al. 2012). Nevertheless, it has been observed that some of the domesticated zebrafish strains lack this sex associated region (Wilson et al. 2014). Additionally, we observe a wide structural variation between domesticated and wild strains within this specific chromosome. Our study applies comparative genomics to identify structural variation between different Danio rerio strains, as well as compared to closely related species, primarily with the focus on the chromosome 4. This includes the analysis of transposable elements that compose half of the genome of zebrafish and stand largely behind the structural variation (Howe et al. 2013). To look at the variation in this highly repetitive genome we utilize long read Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology. Our study will help to understand the variation within this model organism, on the nuclear as well as mitochondrial level, and bring more light to the movement of transposable elements.

  1. Anderson JL, Rodríguez Marí A, Braasch I, Amores A, Hohenlohe P, Batzel P, Postlethwait JH. Multiple sex-associated regions and a putative sex chromosome in zebrafish revealed by RAD mapping and population genomics. PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e40701. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0040701.
  2. Howe K, Clark MD, Torroja CF, Torrance J, Berthelot C, Muffato M, Collins JE, Humphray S, McLaren K, Matthews L, McLaren S, et al. The zebrafish reference genome sequence and its relationship to the human genome. Nature. 2013 Apr 25;496(7446):498-503. doi: 10.1038/nature12111. Epub 2013 Apr 17.
  3. Wilson CA, High SK, McCluskey BM, Amores A, Yan YL, Titus TA, Anderson JL, Batzel P, Carvan MJ 3rd, Schartl M, Postlethwait JH. Wild sex in zebrafish: loss of the natural sex determinant in domesticated strains. Genetics. 2014 Nov;198(3):1291-308. doi: 10.1534/genetics.114.169284.