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Oryzias latipes , known as medaka, is a model organism from East Asia. Breeding of this small, egg-laying freshwater teleost fish has long been popular among hobbyists in Japan. Now, as biological science has entered the genome era, the medaka provides significant advantages that make it one of the most valuable vertebrate models: a large collection of spontaneous mutants collected over a century, the presence of highly polymorphic inbred lines established over decades, and a recently completed genome sequence. This book is the first comprehensive monograph to cover a variety of medaka research. It opens with a historical view of medaka, followed by a series of research topics in the four major areas where the medaka is increasingly important: genomics, genetics, and resources; organogenesis and disease models; germ cells, sex determination, and reproduction; and evolution. Readers will find state-of-the-art information on medaka genetics and genomics such as the first isolation of active transposons in vertebrates, the influence of chromatin structure on sequence variation, fine QTL analysis, and versatile mutants as human disease models.

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1 A Glance at the Past of Medaka Fish Biology.-Part I Genomics, Genetics, and Resources.-2 Genetics, Genomics, and Biological Resources in the Medaka, Oryzias latipes.-3 Chromatin-Associated Periodicity in Genetic Variation Downstream of Transcriptional Start Sites.-4 Transposable Elements Tol1 and Tol2 5 A Systematic Screen for Mutations Affecting Organogenesis in Medaka.-Part II Organogenesis and Disease Models.-6 Medaka Bone Development.-7 Anatomical Atlas of Blood Vascular System of Medaka.-8 Kidney Development, Regeneration, and Polycystic Kidney Disease in Medaka.-9 Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia in Fish: The Analysis of a Novel Medaka Mutant Kintoun.-10 p53-Defi cient Medaka Created by TILLING.-11 Medaka Spontaneous Mutants for Body Coloration.-12 Craniofacial Traits.-13 Double Anal Fin (Da): A Medaka Mutant Exhibiting a Mirror-Image Pattern Duplication of the Dorsal-Ventral Axis.-Part III Germ Cells, Sex Determination, and Reproduction.-14 Interaction of Germ Cells and Gonadal Somatic Cells During Gonadal Formation.-15 Frequent Turnover of Sex Chromosomes in the Medaka Fishes.-16 Function of the Medaka Male Sex-Determining Gene.-17 The Sex-Determining Gene in Medaka.-18 Endocrine Regulation of Oogenesis in the Medaka, Oryzias latipes.-19 Interspecifi c Medaka Hybrids as Experimental Models for Investigating Cell Division and Germ Cell Development.-Part IV Evolution.-20 Reconstruction of the Vertebrate Ancestral Genome Reveals Dynamic Genome Reorganization in Early Vertebrates.-21 Genome Duplication and Subfunction Partitioning: Sox9 in Medaka and Other Vertebrates.-22 Human Population Genetics Meets Medaka.-23 Evolution of the Major Histocompatibility Complex: A Lesson from the Oryzias Species.-24 Molecular Evolution of Teleostean Hatching Enzymes and Their Egg Envelope Digestion Mechanism: An Aspect of Co-Evolution of Protease and Substrate.-Index.

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"In view of the abundance of the topics treated in this volume, the state-of-the-art information on Medaka genetics and genomics, the meaningful figures and diagrams (many are suitable for teachings), and the wealth of references, this volume is surely a ´must´ for those working with this model organism, but it is also recommended to all researches interested in fish biology." (Hartmut Greven, Bulletin of Fish Biology, Vol. 15, 2015)

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