Digital zebrafish embryo provides the first complete developmental blueprint of a ...(chnology. Zebrafish is a widely used...)

Zebrafish is a widely used model organism that shares many features with higher vertebrates. Taking more than 400,000 images per embryo the interdisciplinary team generated terabytes of data on cell positions, movements and divisions that were reassembled into a digital 3D representation of the complete developing embryo.

"The digital embryo is like Google EarthTM for embryonic development. It gives an overview of everything that happens in the first 24 hours and allows you to zoom in on all cellular and even subcellular details," says Jochen Wittbrodt, who has recently moved from EMBL to the University of Heidelberg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

New insights provided by the digital embryo include: fundamental cell movements that later on form the heart and other organs are different than previously thought and the position of the head-tail body axes of the zebrafish is induced early on by signals deposited in the egg by the mother.

The new microscopy technology is also applicable to mice, chickens and frogs. A comparison of digital embryos of these species is likely to provide crucial insights into basic developmental principles and their conservation during evolution.

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