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Controlling Cell Fate in Zebrafish

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Over the past years, there have been many conflicting views over weather or not rest has an effect on controlling cell fate. There has been previous studies that have indicated that the rest gene influences gene expression. Researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook have taken it upon themselves to determine if it is in fact true. By using methods like zinc finger nuclease and quantitative PCR, they were able to find reliable evidence that: rest in zebrafish does have an influencing affect on neural-specific gene expression but it fails to have many significant effects on zebrafish neurogenesis. First of all, lets look at why exactly scientists choose to work on zebrafish.
Zebrafish was chosen by George Streisinger who was looking for a vertebrae model system to do work on genetics. It would appear that zebrasfish have some qualities that particularly makes them an exceptional choice for study. They are easy to maintain, manipulate (ability to microinject DNA, RNA and proteins into) and have many offspring rather rapidly. Another really interesting quality of zebrafish is that in the first few days of embryonic development, embryons are transparent, which allows imaging of cell movement and gene expression. Embryos also develop rather quickly; therefore scientists could do testing sooner then would be capable if mammals were used. Now lets look at what exactly is the rest protein. From what research has determined previously, we believe the rest

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