What is up with that gut? Using zebrafish to model host-microbe-immune interactions

Summary

Fish consumption increased worldwide and most of the fish comes from aquaculture practices. What we feed to cultivated fish needs careful assessment. To study fish gut health in the context of nutrition without large animal experiments, reliable in vivo fish models are needed. Besides, more fundamental knowledge on the host-microbe-feed interactions are needed to understand immune processes that directly impact fish health. The main two aims of this thesis were: 1) to set-up a reliable fish in vivo model to study host-microbe-immune interactions in the context of feeds and 2) create a toolbox of redouts for feed-derived inflammation suitable to evaluate novel aquafeeds. The small zebrafish provided an excellent platform to study host-microbe-immune interactions and to evaluate fish gut health.