Dissociation of food and opiate preference
by a genetic mutation in zebrafish
by
Lau B, Bretaud S, Huang Y, Lin E, Guo S.
Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences,
Programs in Human Genetics and Biological Sciences,
Neuroscience,
Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction,
University of California,
San Francisco, CA 94143-0446, USA.
Genes Brain Behav. 2006 Oct;5(7):497-505.

ABSTRACT

Both natural rewards and addictive substances have the ability to reinforce behaviors. It has been unclear whether identical neural pathways mediate the actions of both. In addition, little is known about these behaviors and the underlying neural mechanisms in a genetically tractable vertebrate, the zebrafish Danio rerio. Using a conditioned place preference paradigm, we demonstrate that wildtype zebrafish exhibit a robust preference for food as well as the opiate drug morphine that can be blocked by the opioid receptor antagonist naloxone. Moreover, we show that the too few mutant, which disrupts a conserved zinc finger-containing gene and exhibits a reduction of selective groups of dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons in the basal diencephalon, displays normal food preference but shows no preference for morphine. Pretreatment with dopamine receptor antagonists abolishes morphine preference in the wildtype. These studies demonstrate that zebrafish display measurable preference behavior for reward and show that the preference for natural reward and addictive drug is dissociable by a single-gene mutation that alters subregions of brain monoamine neurotransmitter systems. Future genetic analysis in zebrafish shall uncover further molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the formation and function of neural circuitry that regulate opiate and food preference behavior.

Pain
NMDA
Morphine
Fentanyl
Alfentanil
Sufentanil
Remifentanil
Endomorphins
Opioids and anaesthesia
Zebrafish prefer morphine
Opioids, mood and cognition
Opioid receptors in the zebrafish

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