Date of Submission
Spring 2015
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Biology
Project Advisor 1
Michael Tibbetts
Abstract/Artist's Statement
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) describes a range of neurodevelopmental disorders affecting 1 in 68 children in the United States (CDC 2014). ASD patients typically exhibit plasma hyperserotonemia and brain hyposerotonemia, indicating the serotonergic system plays a role in the autism phenotype. Serotonin is highly regulated by the gut microbiome and there is a specific signature in organism abundance in the gut microbiome of ASD patients. Zebrafish are an inexpensive vertebrate model system that develop rapidly and have a well-studied gut microbiome. To study the relationship between the gut microbiome and autism susceptibility, I derived germ-free (GF) zebrafish and created an autism-like zebrafish model using valproic acid (VPA), a common pharmaceutical used to induce autism in other model organisms. GF zebrafish displayed behavior consistent with a decrease in anxiety and a dysregulation in serotonin levels. VPA exposed zebrafish larvae displayed behavior consistent with an increase in anxiety, along with a dysregulation of serotonin levels. This study supports zebrafish as a model for ASD susceptibility, and allows for the creation of a gnotobiotic model to study the effects of species-specific abundance on the ASD phenotype and the impact of the gut microbiome on the serotonergic system, with implications for potential ASD treatment.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Caffrey, Elisa Benedetti, "Developing Zebrafish Models to Study the Relationship Between the Gut Microbiome and Autism Susceptibility" (2015). Senior Projects Spring 2015. 123.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2015/123
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
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