Medaka as a research organism: past, present and future

Abstract

This introductory review briefly describes the history of medaka as a research organism and the previous accomplishments of the medaka field. The medaka genome project currently underway through the efforts of an international consortium, the Medaka Genome Initiative, and the future prospects for medaka research, particularly for genomic analyses, are also discussed.

The genetics and embryology of zebrafish metamerism

“…In Japan, there is an extensive history of research on medaka, and more recently, this organism has been used to study vertebrate development (Shima and Mitani, 2004). Medaka make approximately 35 somites at a rate of 1 per hr at 26°C (Elmasri et al, 2004b).…”

Structural components of the synaptonemal complex, SYCP1 and SYCP3, in the medaka fish Oryzias latipes

“…The structure of the SC in several fishes has been reported [23,24,25,26], but its molecular components have not yet been identified in any fish. To study the SC in fish, we selected the medaka fish Oryzias latipes as an experimental system for the following reasons [27,28,29]: 1) Under artificial reproductive conditions, medaka undergoes continuous spermatogenesis and oogenesis, providing experimental materials all year round, 2) medaka spermatogenesis can be reproduced in a cell culture system [30,31,32] In this study, we cloned medaka homologs of Sycp1 and Sycp3, MeSycp1 and MeSycp3 (for medaka Sycp1 and Sycp3, respectively). Using antibodies raised against recombinant proteins, we conducted immunoblotting and immunohistochemical analyses in the testis, ovary, and isolated spermatogenic cells.…”

A second-order high-resolution finite difference scheme for a size-structured model for the spread ofMycobacterium marinum

“…Until recently, little experimental research has been conducted to offer concrete support to one or more of these postulated transmission models. Recently, chronic infections have been successfully induced in medaka [15][16][17]32,36], thereby establishing this as an experimental species in which to study this crucial stage of infection, and the hypothesized modes of transmission between animals. These and other related studies revealed that Mm retrieved from infected tissues were also considerably more infectious, likely because these bacteria reside in the caustic intracellular environment of host macrophages of the target organs [16,19,21,30,34].…”