Although Gregor Mendel is considered the father of genetics, he has never taken the credit for his principles on heredity. Mendel's treatises, though they were part of the collection of the largest European libraries in the 19th century, were only rediscovered in 1900, 16 years after his death. Mendel's revolutionary ideas would have given greater strength to the formulation of Charles Darwin's ideas about common descent and gradual evolution through natural selection presented in 1859 in "The Origin of Species." However, Darwin was not totally ignorant of the possibility of genetic heredity. He even described “invisible characters” emerging in atavistic situations and named his hypothetical particle of heredity as “gemmules.” It is remarkable that the “invisible characters” and “gemmules” referred by Darwin are what we now know as genes – a term coined in 1909 by Wilhelm Johannsen that was widely accepted. During the 1930s and 40s, the findings of great proponents of genetics and evolution such as Mendel, Darwin, Wallace, Fisher, Haldane, Wright, Dobzhansky, Mayr, and several others were brought together to form the neo-Darwinian synthesis. In addition, in the 40s, genetics started its molecular revolution, which in the late 70s, driven by sequencing technology, gave rise to the genomics era. It took approximately 100 years to formulate the theoretical foundations of genetics to understand how information is transmitted to the next generations. Now, less than 45 years after the beginning of the genomic era, science is fully capable of identifying complete genomes. Among animals, fishes are one of the most relevant groups in genetic studies. Although fish studies were important in applying and corroborating Mendel's findings in the first decades of the 19th century, these studies contributed little to the development of classical genetics. However, fish have been of great importance for the development of molecular genetics. Several species such as Carassius auratus, Oryzias latipes, and Danio rerio (among several others of productive interest such as Salmo salar, Oreochromis niloticus, and Cyprinus carpio) have been used around the world as biological models. These models can be used for the study of genes and genomes, epigenetics, and genetic expression. Genetic studies using fish, in addition to increasing genetic knowledge about the species, also serve for a better general understanding of the physiology of metabolic pathways, diseases, evolution, systematics, dispersion, creation, and selection of individuals and lineages. Considering this, this Research Topic aims to bring together studies that present applications of fish as targets in genetic studies.

The zebrafish is the most important fish model in developmental and genetic analyses. This book contains 19 review articles covering a broad spectrum of topics, from development to genetic tools. The contents range from early development, the role of maternal factors and gastrulation, to tissue differentiation and organogenesis, such as development of the organizer, notochord, floor plate, nervous system, somites, muscle, skeleton and endoderm. The genetic tools cover morpholino knock-down, transgenics, fish cloning, transposons and genome evolution. The book also includes two chapters on genome mapping and embryonic stem cells in medaka, another important model fish. Summarizing the state-of-the-art studies of the zebrafish model and focusing on the molecular aspects of development, this book is a valuable reference for students learning the basic aspects of the zebrafish model, and for researchers seeking resources in zebrafish research. Contents:The Role of Maternal Factors in Early Zebrafish Development (F Pelegri)Gastrulation in Zebrafish (F Ulrich & C-P Heisenberg)Development of the Zebrafish Organiser and Notochord (K A Thomas & D L Stemple)Formation and Functions of the Floor Plate (J Tian & K Sampath)Form and Function in the Zebrafish Nervous System (M Hendricks & S Jesuthasan)Development of the Primary Nervous System of the Zebrafish Embryo (U Strähle & V Korzh)Making Scents: Development and Function of the Olfactory Sensory System (K E Whitlock)Somites Segmentation: A View from Fish (H Takeda & Y Saga)Vertebrate Somite Development, Notch Signaling and Others (Y-J Jiang)Molecular Regulation of Fish Muscle Development and Growth (S J Du)Skeletogenesis in Zebrafish Danio rerio: Evolutionary and Developmental Aspects (S Fisher & P M Mabee)Endoderm Formation in Zebrafish (N B David et al.)Gene 'Knockdown' Approaches Using Unconventional Antisense Oligonucleotides (E Chen et al.)Transgenic Fish for Developmental Biology Studies (Z-Y Gong et al.)Cloning the Zebrafish (B Ju et al.)Applications of Transponsable Elements in Fish for Transgenesis and Functional Genomics (P B Hacketts et al.)Evolution of the Zebrafish Genome (J H Postlethwait)Medaka Genome Mappling for Functional Genomics (H Mitani et al.)Medaka Embryonic Stem Cells (Y-H Hong & M Schartl) Readership: Upper level undergraduates, graduate students, academics and researchers in cell & molecular biology, fish & marine biology and genetics. Keywords:Zebrafish;Medaka;Embrynonic Development;Axial Structures;Neurogenesis;Somites;Transgenics;GenomeKey Features:Contributed by active researchers working in the field of developmental biology of the zebrafish and medakaCovers essentially all major topics from early development to organogenesis as well as several most important genetic toolsRepresents most updated reviews in selected areas of the rapidly developing field

Following the extremely well-received structure of the firstedition, this carefully revised and updated new edition nowincludes much new information of vital importance to those workingand researching in the fisheries and aquaculture industries. Commencing with chapters covering genetic variation and how itcan be measured, the authors then look at genetic structure innatural populations, followed by a new chapter covering genetics inrelation to population size and conservation issues. Geneticvariation of traits and triploids and the manipulation of ploidyare fully covered, and another new chapter is included, entitled'From Genetics to Genomics'. The book concludes with a chaptercovering the impact of genetic engineering in aquaculture. With the inclusion of a wealth of up-to-date information, newtext and figures and the inclusion of a third author, PierreBoudry, the second edition of Biotechnology and Genetics inFisheries and Aquaculture provides an excellent text andreference of great value and use to upper level students andprofessionals working across fish biology, aquatic sciences,fisheries, aquaculture, genetics and biotechnology. Libraries inall universities and research establishments where biologicalsciences, fisheries and aquaculture are studied and taught shouldhave several copies of this excellent new edition on theirshelves. Completely updated, revised and expanded new edition Subject area of ever increasing importance Expanded authorship Commercially useful information for fish breeders

Scientific Frontiers in Developmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment reviews advances made during the last 10-15 years in fields such as developmental biology, molecular biology, and genetics. It describes a novel approach for how these advances might be used in combination with existing methodologies to further the understanding of mechanisms of developmental toxicity, to improve the assessment of chemicals for their ability to cause developmental toxicity, and to improve risk assessment for developmental defects. For example, based on the recent advances, even the smallest, simplest laboratory animals such as the fruit fly, roundworm, and zebrafish might be able to serve as developmental toxicological models for human biological systems. Use of such organisms might allow for rapid and inexpensive testing of large numbers of chemicals for their potential to cause developmental toxicity; presently, there are little or no developmental toxicity data available for the majority of natural and manufactured chemicals in use. This new approach to developmental toxicology and risk assessment will require simultaneous research on several fronts by experts from multiple scientific disciplines, including developmental toxicologists, developmental biologists, geneticists, epidemiologists, and biostatisticians.

The aim of this book is to systematize and discuss population genetic studies of freshwater fish in a region that harbors the greatest diversity of species among all inland water ecosystems. This volume explores the genetic evaluation for a number of orders, families and species of Neotropical fishes, and provides an overview on genetic resources and diversity and their relationships with fish domestication, breeding, and food production.

This open access volume presents state-of-the-art inference methods in population genomics, focusing on data analysis based on rigorous statistical techniques. After introducing general concepts related to the biology of genomes and their evolution, the book covers state-of-the-art methods for the analysis of genomes in populations, including demography inference, population structure analysis and detection of selection, using both model-based inference and simulation procedures. Last but not least, it offers an overview of the current knowledge acquired by applying such methods to a large variety of eukaryotic organisms. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, pointers to the relevant literature, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Statistical Population Genomics aims to promote and ensure successful applications of population genomic methods to an increasing number of model systems and biological questions. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.