Abstract
The fish is one of the most useful animal model for central nervous system (CNS) development and regeneration studies. Morphological and molecular biological knowledge has been piled up day by day. However, functional study, especially behavioral knowledge has not been fully studied. Therefore, accurate and simple quantification of fish behavior has become more required. The optomotor response has been used in the studies of visual development. Here, we developed a computer image processing system to analyze optomotor response in zebrafish during development and optic nerve regeneration. The opotomotor response of adult fish with optic nerve transection was recovered by 25-30 days after axotomy. On the other hand, the optomotor response in newborn zebrafish showed an adult pattern by 20 days after fertilization. Furthermore we applied this system to analyze behavior in transgenic fish during development. In the gene knock down embryos which were injected with anti-sense oligonucleotide of purpurin, a retina-specific regenerating molecule, the optomotor response was transiently inhibited in an early period of retinal development. Thus, this system is very powerful tool for studying behavior of development and regeneration in fish. [J Physiol Sci. 2008;58 Suppl:S112]
