Digital zebrafish embryo provides the first complete developmental blueprint of a vertebrate
The montage shows the zebrafish digital embryo (left halves, colors encode movement directions of cells) and the microscopy data (right halves) at different time points in zebrafish development. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have generated a digital zebrafish embryo - the first complete developmental blueprint of a vertebrate. With a newly developed microscope scientists could for the first time track all cells for the first 24 hours in the life of a zebrafish. The data was reconstructed into a three-dimensional, digital representation of the embryo. The study, published in the current online issue of Science, grants many new insights into embryonic development. Movies of the digital embryo and the underlying database of millions of cell positions, divisions and tracks will be made publicly available to provide a novel resource for research and scientific training.