Zebrafish-Reuters.jpg (Photo : Reuters)
The team of scientists who launched a study to identify similarities between human and zebrafish genes in February 2013 has finally released some promising results.
The breakthrough on the project stated that human beings and zebrafish have 85 percent similarity in their Chromosome 1.
Conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Peking and Tsinghua universities and 38 laboratories across China, the research said that all 1,333 genes in zebrafish Chromosome 1 have been knocked out.
A gene knockout, or simply making a gene "inoperative," is a method used by scientists to study genes with unknown or incompletely known function.
According to Meng Anming, chairman of the China zebrafish resource center, the team has explained the function of each of the genes and built various kinds of growth and disease models.
This innovation propels the study of human disease and treatment, especially those that benefit people who had myocardial infarction and those who lost body parts due to amputation.
Meng said that zebrafish fin, squama and cardiac parts can regenerate, making the species a great subject for body repair and regeneration. Zebrafish also reproduce and grow quickly, he said.
A paper published on NCBI said that "zebrafish hearts regenerate after substantial injury or tissue damage." The fish, although lacking a human's four-chambered heart, has three layers of cardiac tissues (myocardium, epicardium and endocardium) as in mammals.
Researches involving zebrafish have been existent for three decades, during which over 8,000 mutations of the species have been identified.
The research team will be publishing the details of the complete study on the center's website.
