Human diseases Research on neurodegenerative disorders is also ongoing at a few research centers using zebrafish as a model. The Indian Institute of Sciences (IISC), Bangalore, has focused on understanding the molecular and cellular basis of myopathies and neurodegenerative disorders using genetically tractable model organisms such as zebrafish.

Dr. Upendra Non-gthomba group at the institute delineated the molecular andcellular mechanisms of myopathies and neurodegenerativedisorders in zebrafish. They found that trunk muscles of zebrafish, a vertebrate model system, also have the capacity to stabilize an immune response against bacterial infections, thus founding that the immune responsiveness of muscles is evolutionarily conserved.

Aurnab Ghose and Prof. Subhedar’sgroups at IISER, Pune have exploited the zebrafish model tomonitor the expression of cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), a neuropeptide with roles inappetite regulation, during different stages of zebrafish de-velopment. Using the zebrafish, they identified interceptiveregions in the brain that change neuropeptide profiles under different energy/nutritional states.

Sanjeev Galande’s group from the same Institute found that SATB1 shares a feedback regulatory network with TCF7L2/b-catenin signalling and is necessary for Wnt signalling-dependent regulation of-catenin.

Taken together, these results provide solid evidenceto build up that SATB1 reprograms the expression of tumor growth- and metastasis-associated genes to accelerate tumor-igenesis and functionally overlaps with Wnt signaling, which is critical for colorectal cancer tumorigenesis.

Dr. Chethana Sachidanandan’s group from IGIB used a morpholino anti-sense oligonucleotide-based animal model to decipher thesox10 deregulation in CHARGE syndrome. Her group revealed the importance of Chd7 regulation for neural crestdevelopment and migration in CHARGE syndrome zebrafishmodel.

Another group from IGIB, Shantanu Chowdhury’s laboratory, focused on tumor metastasis, and enhanced metastasis of NME2 (nonmetastatic 2) depleted lung cancer cells was found in zebrafish.

Rajeeb Swain’s group from Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar investigated the expression pattern of nucleolar protein 4 like gene (NOL4L) in zebrafish embryogenesis which has an important role in acute myeloid leukemia.

Dr. M.M. Idris’s research group at the CCMB is actively involved in understanding the complexity of diseases and development in alternate model systems. This group tried to make a chemical-induced Parkinson’s disease (PD) model, which might be helpful for drug screening in biological research. The group also created a chronic unpredictable stress-induced zebrafish model, which assisted to learn about anxiety and related mood disorders. The second group from the same place is headed by Dr. Arvind Kumar, and they are interested to understand anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dr. Aarti G. Jagtap’s research group at Bombay College of Pharmacy (BCP), Mumbai had a comparative drug screening in PD rat and zebrafish. The group screened both Resveratrol and Quercetin in the in vivo model and suggested that zebrafish is highly sensitive for the basic screening of drugs against PD. Another study revealed that ellagic acid and curcumin have the ability to reduce rotenone toxicity in zebrafish and they suggested that these are useful for the preparation of the drugs against PD.

Dr. Veena K Parmaik’sgroup also from CCMB, Hyderabad is involved in under-standing the tissue specific regulation of lamin A gene and functional role of the nuclear lamina which is an essential component of nuclear architecture (Verma and Parnaik).

The IISER, Pune, research group is actively involved in CART neuropeptide which has been shown important in the regulation of energy homeostasis. Aurnab’s group mapped the distribution of the four CART mRNAs in the central nervous system of the adult zebrafish using gene specific in situ hybridization. The IISER, Mohali group has initiated research to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying retina regeneration using the zebrafish model.

The CCMB, Hyder-abad, RK Mishra’s group is researching the reversible loss of reproductive fitness in zebrafish due to chronic alcohol expo-sure.

Another organization which is actively engaged in zebrafish research, TIFR, Mumbai is the research team led by Dr. Mahendra Sonawane, at the Zebrafish Epidermis ResearchLaboratory, with main focus on epidermis research.

They found the Myosin Vb role in epidermal homeostasis and how it regulated the dynamic balance between cell size and cell number in the zebrafish epidermis. They also found antagonistic interactions between Lgl-regulators and aPKC in the basolateral and apical domain, respectively, to control the length of micro ridges in the zebrafish periderm, the outermost layer of the epidermis. aPKC regulates the levels of Lgl and the active form of nonmuscle myosinII at the apical cortex to prevent elongation of micro ridges and actin polymerization-dependent precocious fusion.

Their data unraveled the functional significance of excluding Lgl from the apical domain in epithelialcells. A second group at the same institute is headed by Dr.Ankona Datta, whose area of interest is to apply molecular tools to visualize and quantify crucial biomolecules involved in cell signaling, autophagy, and neurodegeneration in the in Vivo model.

A group from Dr. Reddy’s Institute of Life Sciences(DRILS), Hyderabad led by Dr. Pushkar Kulkarni is working on drug discovery for Neurodegenerative disorders. They contributed a method for conducting oral dosing and blood–brain barrier permeability experiments in adult zebrafish.

HDR is a vast area and currently countless studies are going on as we write.