University of Oregon Researchers: George Streisinger, Zoltan Varga, Charles Kimmel, Judith Eisen
AB Zebrafish Line.
Summary of Our Technology: The AB line is derived from two lines, A and B, purchased by Streisinger at different times from a pet shop in Albany, Oregon. The original A and B lines probably originated from a hatchery in Florida. Haploid offspring from individual females of the AB line were screened for healthy, good looking embryos, and those females were used to make future generations by crossing them to unselected males. The AB line was maintained in this manner by the Oregon labs from the 1970s to the 1990s. This procedure reduced the number of lethal mutations so that this line can be used for parthenogenesis. By 1991 the AB fish were 70 generations removed from the original wild-type fish that George Streisinger and Charline Walker used to establish the AB line.
The *AB (pronounced star-AB) line was derived from the AB line in 1991-1992, using 21 EP (homozygotes produced by the early pressure method) females (no males). These females were selected by Charline Walker from among 180 females on the basis of the phenotype of their haploid embryos. The eggs from these females were subjected to the EP procedure to produce diploid stocks that were kept separate from each other. Each set of progeny was given a separate stock number (S#). These fish were then intercrossed in as many ways as possible. The resulting fish (from six S#s) were used to make the first *AB stock in June of 1992. The stock is currently called AB, instead of *AB, even though it is only distantly related to the original Streisinger AB line. The current AB stock is maintained by a “Round Robin” mating technique.
For more information, please refer to ZIRC.