Thursday June 6, 2024
PhysOrg —
In Hungary, ethological research is most often identified with tests on dogs, but novel methodological advances could bring another species, the paradise fish, into the spotlight. Fish are easy to handle and produce numerous offspring, which could open up new possibilities for researchers in the fields of evolution and behavioral genetics. Researchers from ELTE Eötvös Loránd University have highlighted the importance of this old-new model animal in recent publications.
Recent methodological advances in the field of molecular biology, such as the steep drop in sequencing costs or the proliferation of universally applicable genome editing techniques, have made it possible to carry out molecular-level studies on non-conventional animal models as well to understand the genetic background of the behavior of a long-researched species..
As a part of such an effort, researchers at ELTE have sequenced and characterized the reference genome of the Chinese paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis), creating an important resource for future experiments. The genome, just 480Mb in size, is located on 23 chromosomes and contains more than 20,000 protein-coding genes. This compact genetic material could make the species an ideal subject for future targeted genome editing experiments.