Developmental Biology
individual is part of the broad field known as developmental biology. The process by which a fertilized egg gives rise to a fully-formed multicellularDevelopment is concerned with the life history of cells in general----including the complex ways that genetic information is translated into organismal structure and function. This includes the molecular mechanisms by which cells specialize and become different from one another, and the ways that shape, form and pattern arise in each generation.

Zebrafish as a Model Organism
Model organisms, also known as model systems, are animals or plants that are well characterized and amenable to laboratory study. Zebrafish provides unprecedented opportunities for the study of vertebrate development for several reasons: the genome of this organism is well characterized, the animal can be easily reared in laboratory settings, and techniques have been developed for genetic manipulations involving introduction of modified genes and manipulation of the expression of specific genes of interest. Also of great importance, the embryo remains translucent throughout much of its development, so that it can be studied in detail under the microscope. Such study includes ingenious methods that have been developed for tagging the protein products of specific genes with fluorescent markers.