![]() Complementing surveys and natural history collections, there are methods like DNA barcoding and meta-barcoding which have been developed to catalog biodiversity, for both previously known and unknown organisms 7. The need to find, categorize, and curate biodiversity is both critical for the prioritized deployment of conservation resources and for maintaining a record of biodiversity before such organisms are lost. The biological sciences face two dire and disturbing issues: (1) increases in extinctions of animals across all continents and oceans 1, 2, 3, 4, as well as (2) a shrinking pool of taxonomists trained to identify these organisms 5, 6, 7. While spectra do not serve as an alternative to the collection of curated specimens, hyperspectral data of fishes in the field should help clarify which specimens might be unique or undescribed, complementing existing molecular and morphological techniques. Herbivorous pacu spectra were more like one another than they were to piranhas however, our method also documented interspecific variation in pacus that corresponds to cryptic lineages. We analyzed 47 serrasalmid species and could distinguish spectra among different species and clades, with the method sensitive enough to document changes in fish coloration over ontogeny. We demonstrate that spectral signatures of individual, live fish specimens can accurately capture species and clade-level differences in fish coloration, specifically among piranhas and pacus (Family Serrasalmidae), fishes with a long history of taxonomic confusion. Although hyperspectral data have been mostly used to study landscape ecology, floral diversity and many other applications in the natural sciences, we propose that spectral signatures can be used for rapid assessment of faunal biodiversity, akin to DNA barcoding and metabarcoding. This review aims to discuss the techniques that make zebrafish a powerful model to investigate the molecular and physiological basis of skeletal disorders.Hyperspectral data encode information from electromagnetic radiation (i.e., color) of any object in the form of a spectral signature these data can then be used to distinguish among materials or even map whole landscapes. Finally, the permeability of embryos to chemicals dissolved in water, together with the availability of large numbers of small-sized animals makes zebrafish a perfect model for high-throughput bone anabolic drug screening. The ability of adult zebrafish to remodel skeletal tissues can be exploited as a unique tool to investigate bone formation and repair. Despite the small size of the zebrafish, many traditional techniques for skeletal phenotyping, such as x-ray and microCT imaging and histological approaches, can be applied using the appropriate equipment and custom protocols. In addition, transgenic lines expressing fluorescent proteins under bone cell- or pathway- specific promoters enable in vivo imaging of differentiation and signaling at the cellular level. In the last decades, the use of both forward and new reverse genetics techniques has resulted in the generation of many mutant lines carrying skeletal phenotypes associated with human diseases. Furthermore, zebrafish share similar skeletal cells and ossification types with mammals. The zebrafish has been used as an efficient alternative vertebrate model for the study of human skeletal diseases, thanks to its easy genetic manipulation, high fecundity, external fertilization, transparency of rapidly developing embryos, and low maintenance cost. Traditionally, mice have been the most common model organism in biomedical research, but their use is hampered by several limitations including complex generation, demanding investigation of early developmental stages, regulatory restrictions on breeding, and high maintenance cost. Animal models are essential tools for addressing fundamental scientific questions about skeletal diseases and for the development of new therapeutic approaches. ![]()
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