Motility Assay for Zebrafish Embryos

Materials and Reagents

1. Pipette pump
   
2. Glass Pasteur pipette
   
3. Overhead transparency sheet
   
4. Zebrafish embryo media of choice (Goody et al., 2012)
5. Embryo ‘poker’ tool (e.g. segment of fishing line super glued in the end of a glass capillary tube, fire polished glass rod)
   
   
   Figure 1. Embryo poker tool. This is a useful tool for the positioning and touch stimulus of zebrafish embryos. Fishing line (10 lb, 0.012 inch diameter) is super glued into the end of a glass capillary tube (Sutter Instruments, catalog number: BF100-50-10) with approximately 1 cm of overhang. The glass capillary tube is then wrapped in lab tape.
   

Equipment

1. Microscope with high-speed, digital video camera attachment (e.g. Zeiss SteREO Discovery.V12 with Zeiss Axiocam HSm)
   
2. Video processing software (e.g. Zeiss Axiovision)
   
3. 60 mm Petri dish
   

Procedure