Abstract
The effects of ethanol exposure on Danio rerio have been studied from the perspectives of developmental biology and behavior. However, little is known about the effects of ethanol on the prey-predator relationship and chemical communication of predation risk. Here, we showed that visual contact with a predator triggers stress axis activation in zebrafish. We also observed a typical stress response in zebrafish receiving water from these conspecifics, indicating that these fish chemically communicate predation risk. Our work is the first to demonstrate how alcohol effects this prey-predator interaction. We showed for the first time that alcohol exposure completely blocks stress axis activation in both fish seeing the predator and in fish that come in indirect contact with a predator by receiving water from these conspecifics. Together with other research results and with the translational relevance of this fish species, our data points to zebrafish as a promising animal model to study human alcoholism.
Highlights
The effects of ethanol exposure on Danio rerio have been studied from developmental biology and behavioral perspectives [1,2,3]
It has been well documented that prey fish are able to recognize predation risk and communicate to conspecific fish through either chemical cues from epidermal club cells released as a result of skin injury [4,5] or disturbance substances released in the absence of a skin injury [6,7,8]
Studies focusing on the stress axis activation by chemical cues released from conspecifics that are in direct and/or indirect contact with a predator are scarce [9,10]
Summary
The effects of ethanol exposure on Danio rerio have been studied from developmental biology and behavioral perspectives [1,2,3]. It has been well documented that prey fish are able to recognize predation risk and communicate to conspecific fish through either chemical cues from epidermal club cells released as a result of skin injury (alarm substance) [4,5] or disturbance substances released in the absence of a skin injury [6,7,8]. These studies focused on the antipredatory behavior triggered by alarm and disturbance cues. The prey-predator relationship may trigger the stress axis in the prey fish [11] with either direct (in the presence of the predator) or indirect contact (visualization of the predator) [12,13]
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