Analysis of Embryonic and Larval Zebrafish Skeletal Myofibers from Dissociated Preparations

The overall goal of this procedure is to efficiently isolate skeletal muscle fibers from embryonic and larval zebra fish. This is accomplished by first preparing poly L lysine coated cover slips next one to four days post fertilization, zebrafish embryos are dissociated. Then myo fibers isolated from the dissociated embryos are plated on the polylysine cover slips.

Finally, the myo fibers are fixed, stained and imaged for analysis of muscle proteins. Ultimately, results can be obtained that show subcellular localization of muscle proteins through immunofluorescence microscopy. The main advantage of this technique over existing methods like whole embryo analysis, is that it allows for the study of single muscle fiber morphology and physiology in greater detail.