To neurotoxins. To further evaluate the toxic effects of these chemicals, lengths of anteiro-posterior body, the central nervous system (CNS) and ventral axons were measured. Among the three lengths, only body length measurement is in wild type larvae. As shown in Figure 5 and Table S1, only high doses of atrazine, ethanol, lindance and mefenamic acid showed measureable difference (P = 0.01?.05) compared to the control groups, but only Title Loaded From File highest concentration groups of ethanol (2 ) and of mefenamic acid (100, 250 mg/L) showed statistically highly significant difference (P,0.01). For CNS length, only the two highest doses (20 and 25 mg/L) of acetaminophen showed highly significant difference (P,0.01) although other four neurotoxins, but not mefenamic acid, also resulted in measurable shortening (P = 0.01?.05) in their high concentration groups. In contrast, by measurement of axon length, we found that even the lowest dose of all of five neurotoxins (2.5 mg/L acetaminophen, 1 mg/L atenolol, 1 mg/L atrazine, 0.1 ethanol, 1.25 mg/ L lindane) caused highly significant (P,0.01) shortening (Figure 5 and Table S1). Compared to the starting Title Loaded From File concentrations of highly significant changes observed based on standard DarT endpoints examined under a bright-field microscope, the axon length endpoint would increase detection sensitivity by at least 2? foldfor the five neurotoxins. It is interesting to note that there is no observed axon shortening from mefenamic acid treatment except for the highest concentration groups (100 and 250 mg/L) while other general toxicological changes (e.g. survival rates, hatching, tail detachment, somite formation, edema etc) were observed at much lower concentration (10 mg/L), suggesting that the shortened axons by mefenamic acid may be a secondary effect resulted from other primary toxicities. These observations suggest that the axon length is a quite sensitive and specific endpoint for testing neurotoxicity. The axon length was generally correlated with the lack of or abnormal touch response (Table S1), which was dosagedependent but an apparently less sensitive trait than axonal length. To further determine the maximum sensitivity of using the axon length as a biomarker for these neurotoxins, another test with lower ranges of neurotoxin concentrations was conducted. As shown in Figure 6, highly significant difference of measured axon length (P,0.01) could be detected at the following lowest concentrations: 1 mg/L acetaminophen, 0.5 mg/L atenolol, 0.5 mg/L atrazine, 0.08 ethanol and 0.5 mg/L lindane. Thus, compared to the starting concentrations of the changes observed based on standard DarT endpoints examined under a bright microscope (10 mg/L acetaminophen, 5 mg/L atenolol, 4 mg/L atrazine, 0.5 ethanol and 5 mg/L lindane (Table S1), the axon length endpoint would increase detection of sensitivity by about 10 fold.DiscussionIn the present study, we demonstrated that the fluorescent transgenic zebrafish Tg(nkx2.2a:mEGFP), in which the centralTransgenic Zebrafish for Neurotoxin TestFigure 4. General phenotypes (left row), GFP-expressing central nervous systems (middle row) and motoneuron axons (right row) of 80-hpf Tg(nkx2.2a:mEGFP) fry in the presence of effective concentrations of different chemicals. (A) 0.01 DMSO control, (B) 5 mg/L Acetaminophen, (C) 2.5 mg/L Atenolol, (D) 2 mg/L Atrazine, (E) 0.5 Ethanol, (F) 1.25 mg/L Lindane and (G) 250 mg/L Mefenamic acid. Somite numbers are indicated at the top right panel. S.To neurotoxins. To further evaluate the toxic effects of these chemicals, lengths of anteiro-posterior body, the central nervous system (CNS) and ventral axons were measured. Among the three lengths, only body length measurement is in wild type larvae. As shown in Figure 5 and Table S1, only high doses of atrazine, ethanol, lindance and mefenamic acid showed measureable difference (P = 0.01?.05) compared to the control groups, but only highest concentration groups of ethanol (2 ) and of mefenamic acid (100, 250 mg/L) showed statistically highly significant difference (P,0.01). For CNS length, only the two highest doses (20 and 25 mg/L) of acetaminophen showed highly significant difference (P,0.01) although other four neurotoxins, but not mefenamic acid, also resulted in measurable shortening (P = 0.01?.05) in their high concentration groups. In contrast, by measurement of axon length, we found that even the lowest dose of all of five neurotoxins (2.5 mg/L acetaminophen, 1 mg/L atenolol, 1 mg/L atrazine, 0.1 ethanol, 1.25 mg/ L lindane) caused highly significant (P,0.01) shortening (Figure 5 and Table S1). Compared to the starting concentrations of highly significant changes observed based on standard DarT endpoints examined under a bright-field microscope, the axon length endpoint would increase detection sensitivity by at least 2? foldfor the five neurotoxins. It is interesting to note that there is no observed axon shortening from mefenamic acid treatment except for the highest concentration groups (100 and 250 mg/L) while other general toxicological changes (e.g. survival rates, hatching, tail detachment, somite formation, edema etc) were observed at much lower concentration (10 mg/L), suggesting that the shortened axons by mefenamic acid may be a secondary effect resulted from other primary toxicities. These observations suggest that the axon length is a quite sensitive and specific endpoint for testing neurotoxicity. The axon length was generally correlated with the lack of or abnormal touch response (Table S1), which was dosagedependent but an apparently less sensitive trait than axonal length. To further determine the maximum sensitivity of using the axon length as a biomarker for these neurotoxins, another test with lower ranges of neurotoxin concentrations was conducted. As shown in Figure 6, highly significant difference of measured axon length (P,0.01) could be detected at the following lowest concentrations: 1 mg/L acetaminophen, 0.5 mg/L atenolol, 0.5 mg/L atrazine, 0.08 ethanol and 0.5 mg/L lindane. Thus, compared to the starting concentrations of the changes observed based on standard DarT endpoints examined under a bright microscope (10 mg/L acetaminophen, 5 mg/L atenolol, 4 mg/L atrazine, 0.5 ethanol and 5 mg/L lindane (Table S1), the axon length endpoint would increase detection of sensitivity by about 10 fold.DiscussionIn the present study, we demonstrated that the fluorescent transgenic zebrafish Tg(nkx2.2a:mEGFP), in which the centralTransgenic Zebrafish for Neurotoxin TestFigure 4. General phenotypes (left row), GFP-expressing central nervous systems (middle row) and motoneuron axons (right row) of 80-hpf Tg(nkx2.2a:mEGFP) fry in the presence of effective concentrations of different chemicals. (A) 0.01 DMSO control, (B) 5 mg/L Acetaminophen, (C) 2.5 mg/L Atenolol, (D) 2 mg/L Atrazine, (E) 0.5 Ethanol, (F) 1.25 mg/L Lindane and (G) 250 mg/L Mefenamic acid. Somite numbers are indicated at the top right panel. S.