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Medaka fish stem cells and their applications

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Abstract

Stem cells are present in developing embryos and adult tissues of multicellular organisms. Owing to their unique features, stem cells provide excellent opportunities for experimental analyses of basic developmental processes such as pluripotency control and cell fate decision and for regenerative medicine by stem cell-based therapy. Stem cell cultures have been best studied in 3 vertebrate organisms. These are the mouse, human and a small laboratory fish called medaka. Specifically, medaka has given rise to the first embryonic stem (ES) cells besides the mouse, the first adult testis-derived male stem cells spermatogonia capable of test-tube sperm production, and most recently, even haploid ES cells capable of producing Holly, a semi-cloned fertile female medaka from a mosaic oocyte created by microinjecting a haploid ES cell nucleus directly into a normal oocyte. These breakthroughs make medaka a favoring vertebrate model for stem cell research, the topic of this review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore, 119260, Singapore

    MeiSheng Yi, Ni Hong, ZhenDong Li, Yan Yan, DanKe Wang, HaoBin Zhao & YunHan Hong

  2. Division of Bioengineering, School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 637457, Singapore

    Yan Yan

  3. Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetic Regulation and Integrative Biology, School of Life Sciences, Huazhong Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    HaoBin Zhao

  4. State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    YunHan Hong

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Yi, M., Hong, N., Li, Z. et al. Medaka fish stem cells and their applications. Sci. China Life Sci. 53, 426–434 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-010-0079-3

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