Abstract
Live Imaging in Zebrafish: Insights into Development and Disease. Edited by Karuna Sampath and Sudipto Roy. Published by World Scientific Publishing, 2010. Features hard cover, 164 pages, glossy paper, and keyword index.
Topics included are neuronal migration, immune cell migration, and lipid metabolism. Dr. Heisenberg contributes a chapter about imaging motor neurons as they move within the hindbrain during development, Dr. Appel writes about imaging glia development, and Dr. Koster contributes a chapter on the cell biology of neuronal migration. Immune cell migration is covered by Dr. Crosier, and Dr. Farber writes about imaging lipid metabolism in larvae.
One chapter is devoted to fluorescence-correlation spectroscopy (FCS) in live zebrafish embryos. Dr. Wohland includes both theoretical and practical aspects to applying this technique to zebrafish. By applying FCS to zebrafish, he shows that it can be effectively used to measure the rate of blood flow. In theory, it can also be used to measure concentration, diffusion rates, and binding constants, making it an old technique with an exciting new application in zebrafish.
The book also includes practical methods for mounting embryos; discussion of various ways to make cell-specific transgenes; and a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of several microscopy techniques, including confocal and light-sheet illumination.
The book is organized a la carte, with different authors for each chapter. Although it feels like a collection of scientific articles bound in a single volume, it reads more like a brief, specific, and up-to-date textbook. The comprehensive index is essential because the chapters are written independently. The organization spreads some information about the book and necessarily leads to some duplication. However, it is informative and written for researchers who are more interested in scientific questions than the gory details of imaging technology.