Medaka is a small egg-laying freshwater fish that allows both genetic and embryological analyses and is one of the three vertebrate model organisms in which genome-wide phenotype-driven mutant screens were carried out 1 . Divergence of functional overlap of related genes between medaka and zebrafish allows identification of novel phenotypes that are unidentifiable in a single species 2 , thus medaka and zebrafish are complementary for genetic dissection of the vertebrate genome functions. Manipulation of medaka embryos, such as dechorionation, mounting embryos for imaging and cell transplantation, are key procedures to work on both medaka and zebrafish in a laboratory. Cell transplantation examines cell autonomy of medaka mutations. Chimeras are generated by transplanting labeled cells from donor embryos into unlabeled recipient embryos. Donor cells can be transplanted to specific areas of the recipient embryos based on the fate maps 3 so that clones from transplanted cells can be integrated in the tissue of interest during development. Due to the hard chorion and soft embryos, manipulation of medaka embryos is more involved than in zebrafish. In this video, we show detailed procedures to manipulate medaka embryos.
Video LinkThe video component of this article can be found at https://www.jove.com/video/2055/ Protocol 1. Development of the embryos 1. When they are laid, eggs are clustered because of attachment filaments on the chorion. To let embryos develop normally, it is necessary to separate eggs. Tangle and cut attachment filaments by holding the attachment filaments with two forceps. 2. After unclustering, eggs are separated from feces and algae and transferred to fresh embryo medium at a maximum density of 40 eggs per 6cm Petri dish. 3. Medaka embryos develop slightly slower than zebrafish at 27°C. The timing of hatching is different between the two species; medaka embryos hatch from the chorion in 7 days and immediately start to swim and eat, whereas zebrafish embryos hatch in 2 days but start to swim and eat in 5-6 days. Development of medaka is staged according to Iwamatsu's staging 4 . 4. The development of medaka embryos can be conveniently adjusted to experimental plans by selecting the appropriate temperature.Development of medaka embryos can be stopped at 4°C in early development. After stage 24 when heart beating starts, development can be slowed using a minimum temperature of 18°C. 5. The timing of appearance of organs/tissues is slightly different in medaka compared with zebrafish, i.e. in medaka somitogenesis occurs after the onset of brain development whereas in zebrafish somitegenesis precedes brain development.
Removing the chorionThe chorion of medaka consists of two protective layers with a hard inner layer and a soft outer surface. Thus, a two-step protease treatment employing pronase and hatching enzyme is necessary to remove this chorion.Once dechorionated, embryos should be kept in 1X BSS. Semi-sterile conditions will enhance the successful culture of dechorionated embryos, esp...