Editorial: Zebrafish Epigenetics

Abstract

A key area of focus in the field of epigenetics pertains the comprehension of the functional relevance of the epigenetic mechanisms occurring during embryogenesis to shape normal developmental trajectories and adult phenotypes (Atlasi and Stunnenberg, 2017; Skvortsova et al., 2018; Cavalieri, 2021; Marchione et al., 2021). Several lines of evidence highlighted that the small freshwater cyprinid Danio rerio, commonly known as zebrafish, is an excellent vertebrate model for research purposes in the field of epigenetics (Huang et al., 2013; Balasubramanian et al., 2019; Horsfield, 2019; Cavalieri, 2020). The general strengths of zebrafish over concurrent models are well known: ease of husbandry and maintenance in laboratory, high fecundity, external fertilization, short life cycle and generation time. Beyond this, the increasing popularity of zebrafish for epigenetic research purposes is due to two main reasons. First, components of the epigenetic machinery have been widely characterized in zebrafish, showing overall conservation with mammals (Howe et al., 2013; Cavalieri and Spinelli, 2017). No less important, zebrafish embryos are optically translucent and relatively permeable to a wide range of compounds, allowing non-invasive live imaging of morphogenesis and phenotypes following exposure to environmental stressors that challenge the epigenome (Godinho, 2011; Ali et al., 2014). Altogether, these benefits also make zebrafish an outstanding model for large-scale screening of potential therapeutics targeting epigenetic regulatory mechanisms.