The vertebrate endoderm makes major contributions to the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts and all associated organs. Zebrafish and humans share a high degree of genetic homology and strikingly similar endodermal organ systems. Combined with a multitude of experimental advantages, zebrafish are an attractive model organism to study endoderm development and disease. Recent functional genomics studies have shed considerable light on the gene regulatory programs governing early zebrafish endoderm development, while advances in biological and technological approaches stand to further revolutionize our ability to investigate endoderm formation, function and disease. Here, we discuss the present understanding of endoderm specification in zebrafish compared to other vertebrates, how current and emerging methods will allow refined and enhanced analysis of endoderm formation, and how integration with human data will allow modeling of the link between non-coding sequence variants and human disease.

中文翻译：

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使用斑马鱼研究内胚层形成的分子肠道


脊椎动物内胚层对呼吸道、胃肠道以及所有相关器官做出了重大贡献。斑马鱼和人类具有高度的遗传同源性和惊人相似的内胚层器官系统。结合多种实验优势，斑马鱼是研究内胚层发育和疾病的一种有吸引力的模型生物。最近的功能基因组学研究为控制早期斑马鱼内胚层发育的基因调控程序提供了相当多的线索，而生物和技术方法的进步将进一步彻底改变我们研究内胚层形成、功能和疾病的能力。在这里，我们讨论目前对斑马鱼内胚层规范与其他脊椎动物相比的理解，当前和新兴的方法将如何允许对内胚层形成进行精细和增强的分析，以及与人类数据的整合将如何允许对非编码序列变异之间的联系进行建模和人类疾病。