Evaluation of neurotoxic effects in zebrafish embryos by automatic measurement of early motor behaviors

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) has rapidly become a popular model species for behavioral studies that may be relevant to drug screening and safety toxicology. Zebrafish embryos show a complex behavioral repertoire already a few hours after fertilization. Particularly, early stage zebrafish show characteristic behavioral features such as spontaneous tail coiling (STC) or induced movements when exposed to a short and bright light flash (called photomotor response—PMR). In this chapter, we provide the methods for assessing STC and PMR in zebrafish embryos and to detect changes provoked by chemicals. One of the protocols uses video analysis suitable for automated high-throughput screening. Moreover, both protocols describe the use of automated video analysis by using an open-source integration platform (KNIME® analytics platform), providing a flexible workflow system that can be adapted to a diversity of video recordings. We also provide a toxicological validation of this assay and show that these protocols can be used to provide an automated, high data-content readout for zebrafish behavioral responses.