KNIME workflows for the evaluation of neurotoxic effects in zebrafish embryos by automatic measurement of early motor behaviours

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) has rapidly become a popular model species for behavioural studies that may be relevant to drug screening and safety toxicology.  Zebrafish embryos show a complex behavioural repertoire already a few days after fertilizations. Particularly, early stage zebrafish show characteristic behavioural features such as spontaneous tail coilings (STCs) or induced movements when exposed to a short and bright light flash (called photomotor response -PMR-). In this chapter, we provide the methods for assessing the STC and PMR in zebrafish embryos and detect changes provoked by chemicals. One of the protocols uses video analysis suitable for automated high-throughput screening. Moreover, both protocols describe the use of automated video analysis by using an open-source integration platform (KNIME analytics platform), providing a flexible workflow system that can be adapted to a diversity of video recordings. We also provide a toxicological validation of this assay and show that these protocols can be used to provide an automated, high data-content readout for zebrafish behavioural responses.