We investigated the behavioural and learning response of zebrafish larvae to chemicals released by injured conspecifics (the alarm cue). Many aquatic vertebrates and invertebrates exhibit an innate antipredator response to alarm cues because in nature, they reliably indicate the presence of predators. Likewise, when an individual simultaneously perceives a novel odour and alarm cue, it learns to recognise the novel odour as a predator odour. Alarm cue-mediated behavioural response and learning have been reported in some fish and amphibians during early ontogeny, but in zebrafish, they have been described only for adults. In this study, we demonstrated that zebrafish at 12 and 24 days post fertilization exhibited reduced activity when exposed to alarm cue obtained by homogenised larvae of the same age, with this response being greater for the older zebrafish. In addition, we showed that 24-dpf zebrafish conditioned with alarm cue plus a novel odour learned to recognise the novel odour as a threat and responded to it with antipredator behaviour. The innate behavioural response and the learned response after conditioning may be used to develop paradigms with which to study anxiety, fear, stress, learning and memory in zebrafish larvae.

中文翻译：

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警报提示介导的斑马鱼幼虫的反应和学习。

我们调查了斑马鱼幼虫对受伤害的特定物种释放的化学物质的行为和学习反应（警报提示）。许多水生脊椎动物和无脊椎动物表现出对警报提示的先天性反捕食者反应，因为在自然界中，它们可靠地表明存在捕食者。同样，当一个人同时感知到新的气味和警报提示时，就会学会将新的气味识别为掠食性气味。在早期个体发育过程中，一些鱼类和两栖动物有警报提示介导的行为反应和学习的报道，但在斑马鱼中，仅针对成年动物进行了描述。在这项研究中，我们证明了斑马鱼在受精后第12天和第24天暴露于相同年龄的均质幼虫获得的警报提示后，其活动能力降低了，对于较老的斑马鱼，这种反应更大。此外，我们证明了以警报提示和新气味为条件的24-dpf斑马鱼学会了将新气味识别为威胁，并以反捕食者行为对其做出反应。先天的行为反应和条件调节后的学习反应可用于发展范式，用以研究斑马鱼幼虫的焦虑，恐惧，压力，学习和记忆。