Our lab studies how cellular connectivity is patterned in the nervous system during development and regeneration. We examine how environmental signals influence neural behavior by using cell transplantation to address how their behavior changes when they're placed in different genetic spatial or temporal environments. While transplantation is common in zebrafish embryos, it's generally performed during the blastula and gastrula stages when cells are largely undifferentiated.
This is valuable for generating genetic mosaics, but it limits the ability of the technique to interrogate how spatial temporal signaling dynamics influence development beyond these stages. Here, we present a protocol that allows for transplantation of cells, including differentiated neurons in embryos and larva up to at least seven days post fertilization. We can transplant as little as one cell with high spatial and temporal resolution and use genetic fluorescent labeling for long-term tracking of transplanted cells in the host animal.
This protocol allows us to alter the genetic spatial and temporal environment of cells at many different developmental stages, opening up new opportunities to examine principles of style signaling during development and regeneration.
