DNA repair capacity of zebrafish

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Abstract
Damage to the genome is unavoidable in living creatures, because of sunlight exposure as well as environmental chemicals present in food and drinking water. There is a need to monitor and purify the drinking water; therefore, several methods of detection have been developed. A very promising model system for this purpose is the zebrafish (Danio rerio), which is endowed with special qualities for detecting external as well as internal abnormalities. Grossman and Wei's assay [Grossman L, Wei Q (1995) Clin Chem 12:1854-1863], which measures the expression level of a nonreplicating recombinant plasmid DNA containing a UV-damaged luciferase reporter gene, shows that zebrafish can repair chromosomal lesions to a much greater extent than the human population. This vertebrate model is still very promising after possible down-regulation of the DNA repair enzymes.