Claire Nicole Bedbrook
Basic Life Research Scientist
Bioengineering
All Publications
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Husbandry of the African Turquoise Killifish Nothobranchius furzeri.
Cold Spring Harbor protocols
2023
Abstract
The African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) is an extremely short-lived vertebrate that has emerged as a powerful model organism for several research areas, including aging and embryonic diapause, which is the temporary suspension of embryonic development. The killifish research community is expanding and developing new solutions to improve the tractability of the killifish as a model system. Starting a killifish colony from scratch can present numerous challenges. In this protocol, we aim to highlight critical elements in building and maintaining a killifish colony. This protocol should help laboratories start a killifish colony and standardize aspects of killifish husbandry.
View details for DOI 10.1101/pdb.prot107738
View details for PubMedID 36863854
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Life Span Assessment in the African Turquoise Killifish Nothobranchius furzeri.
Cold Spring Harbor protocols
2023
Abstract
The African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) is the shortest-lived vertebrate bred in captivity, with a median life span of 4-6 mo. Within its short life span, the killifish recapitulates critical aspects of human aging, including neurodegeneration and increased frailty. Developing standardized protocols for life span assessment in killifish is critical for identifying environmental and genetic factors that impact vertebrate life span. A standardized life span protocol should have low variability and high reproducibility, and it should enable comparison of life spans between laboratories. Here, we report our standardized protocol for measuring life span in the African turquoise killifish.
View details for DOI 10.1101/pdb.prot107917
View details for PubMedID 36863852
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An automated feeding system for the African killifish reveals effects of dietary restriction on lifespan and allows scalable assessment of associative learning.
eLife
2022; 11
Abstract
The African turquoise killifish is an exciting new vertebrate model for aging studies. A significant challenge for any model organism is the control over its diet in space and time. To address this challenge, we created an automated and networked fish feeding system. Our automated feeder is designed to be open-source, easily transferable, and built from widely available components. Compared to manual feeding, our automated system is highly precise and flexible. As a proof-of-concept for the feeding flexibility of these automated feeders, we define a favorable regimen for growth and fertility for the African killifish and a dietary restriction regimen where both feeding time and quantity are reduced. We show that this dietary restriction regimen extends lifespan in males (but not in females) and impacts the transcriptomes of killifish livers in a sex-specific manner. Moreover, combining our automated feeding system with a video camera, we establish a quantitative associative learning assay to provide an integrative measure of cognitive performance for the killifish. The ability to precisely control food delivery in the killifish opens new areas to assess lifespan and cognitive behavior dynamics and to screen for dietary interventions and drugs in a scalable manner previously impossible with traditional vertebrate model organisms.
View details for DOI 10.7554/eLife.69008
View details for PubMedID 36354233