Acquisition of a Zebrafish Housing and Breeding System for the University of Mississippi Aquatics Facility

Project Summary: Zebrafish, Danio rerio, is an incredibly useful model organism in biomedical research. The vast number of genetic mutants, ease of phenotypic screening, and transparency during early development have enabled molecular understanding of many human diseases. Mirroring the national trend of increased use of this model organism, the number of researchers at the University of Mississippi (UM) using and proposing to use zebrafish is expanding. The goal of this proposal is to support the acquisition of the latest technologically advanced zebrafish culture systems to expand the capabilities of the zebrafish researchers. Optimum culture conditions and monitoring and alerting functions are essential to maintain ideal health and reproduction in our aquatic facility. The UM Aquatic Facility includes eight rooms, three set aside for routine animal culture. While one room has utilized a similar Aquaneering system since 2018, and two single rack systems were purchased with new grant funds (November 2023, August 2024), there is an acute need to modernize the remaining culture room to accommodate the needs of the current researchers and facilitate needed faculty recruitment. Specifically, this proposal will implement in Faser 300E, three single-sided and one double-sided 6-shelf racks and include all the monitoring, dosing, and heating necessary to ensure healthy zebrafish culture. Incorporating these systems will allow us to buffer infrastructural inconsistencies (water and heating) in our 50-year-old building. Furthermore, including the 100 L AquaSpawner chamber, hooked into the system water flow, will provide us with new capabilities to generate thousands of embryos replicating the zebrafish’s preferred spawning conditions while minimizing animal handling. Zebrafish researchers at UM have been and are supported by two NIGMS COBRE centers, NIEHS, NICHD, NIDA, and the American Heart Association, with