Skin swabbing is a refined technique to collect DNA from model fish species

Tilley, CA, Carreño Gutierrez, H, Sebire, M, Obasaju, O, Reichmann, F, Katsiadaki, I, Barber, I ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3955-6674 and Norton, WHJ, 2020. Skin swabbing is a refined technique to collect DNA from model fish species. Scientific Reports, 10: 18212. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

Model fish species such as sticklebacks and zebrafish are frequently used in studies that require DNA to be collected from live animals. This is typically achieved by fin clipping, a procedure that is simple and reliable to perform but that can harm fish. An alternative procedure to sample DNA involves swabbing the skin to collect mucus and epithelial cells. Although swabbing appears to be less invasive than fin clipping, it still requires fish to be netted, held in air and handled—procedures that can cause stress. In this study we combine behavioural and physiological analyses to investigate changes in gene expression, behaviour and welfare after fin clipping and swabbing. Swabbing led to a smaller change in cortisol release and behaviour on the first day of analysis compared to fin clipping. It also led to less variability in data suggesting that fewer animals need to be measured after using this technique. However, swabbing triggered some longer term changes in zebrafish behaviour suggesting a delayed response to sample collection. Skin swabbing does not require the use of anaesthetics and triggers fewer changes in behaviour and physiology than fin clipping. It is therefore a more refined technique for DNA collection with the potential to improve fish health and welfare.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Scientific Reports
Creators:	Tilley, C.A., Carreño Gutierrez, H., Sebire, M., Obasaju, O., Reichmann, F., Katsiadaki, I., Barber, I. and Norton, W.H.J.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	23 October 2020
Volume:	10
ISSN:	2045-2322
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1038/s41598-020-75304-1 DOI 1380363 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2020 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	16 Jul 2021 09:45
Last Modified:	16 Jul 2021 09:45
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/43504

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