Four Resource Centers for Fishes: Specifies, Stocks, and Services William E. Hawkins,^1,* Melody S. Clark,²  Akihiro Shima,³  Ronald B. Walter,⁴  Richard N. Winn,⁵ and Monte Westerfield^{6 1}College of Marine Sciences, The University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, MS 39564, USA ²UK-Human Genome Mapping Project, Resource Center, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SB, UK ³Department of Biological Sciences, School of Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan 113-0033 ⁴Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA ⁵Aquatic Biotechnology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA ⁶University of Oregon, Institute of Neuroscience, Eugene, OR 97403-1254, USA Abstract:  A  conference  on  “Aquaria  Fish  Models  of  Human  Disease”  was  held  September  20–23,  2000,  at Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, USA. The meeting was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute  (National  Institutes  of  Health),  the  Roy  and  Joan  Mitte  Foundation,  and  Southwest  Texas  State University, home of the  Xiphophorus  Genetic Stock Center. In conjunction with the meeting, the conference organizers  asked  several  participants  to  describe  those  components  of  their  research  programs  that  provide services and information to other researchers. This article summarizes their responses. Key  words:  fish; aquarium; resources; fugu; medata; zebrafish; xiphophorus. INTRODUCTION Progress in the biomedical sciences depends heavily on the development  and  availability  of  animal  models,  regardless of species. The establishment of fish models understandably has  lagged  behind  that  of  rodent  models.  However,  the newly recognized advantages of laboratory fish due, in part, to  their  compact  genomes,  short  life  cycles,  and  ease  of manipulation,  has  generated  a  need  for  more  resources from  which  researchers  can  draw  genetically  defined, healthy animals, materials, and information. The zebrafish has  received  attention  as  a  widely  used  fish  model  in  ver- tebrate  genetics  and  development.  However,  with  over 30,000 teleost species, there should be many opportunities to investigate important processes in biomedicine in other fish species. In this article, we describe some fish resources that are available to researchers for study or collaboration. They include the following ones: The fugu genomic model (HGMP  Resource  Centre,  United  Kingdom);  the  Japanese medaka (Nagoya University and University of Tokyo, Uni- versity of Georgia and University of Southern Mississippi); the zebrafish (the Zebrafish International Resource Center, University  of  Oregon);  and,  the   Xiphophorus/platyfish model (Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center, Southwest Texas State University). For each resource, the facility is described Received January 31, 2001; accepted March 30, 2001. *Corresponding   author:   telephone   228-872-4215;   fax   228-872-4204;   e-mail: william.hawkins@usm.edu Mar. Biotechnol. 3, S239–S248, 2001 DOI: 10.1007/s10126-001-0046-X © 2001 Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Next >>