High-resolution analysis of central nervous system expression patterns in zebrafish Gal4 enhancer-trap lines.

Background: The application of the Gal4/UAS system to enhancer and gene trapping screens in zebrafish has greatly increased the ability to label and manipulate cell populations in multiple tissues, including the central nervous system (CNS). However the ability to select existing lines for specific applications has been limited by the lack of detailed expression analysis.

Results: We describe a Gal4 enhancer trap screen in which we used advanced image analysis, including three-dimensional confocal reconstructions and documentation of expression patterns at multiple developmental time points.