This study aimed to further elucidate how the gastrointestinal tract of zebrafish functions to better utilize the zebrafish model for studying intestinal motility. Zebrafish share a high percentage of genes with humans and have similar gastrointestinal morphology. An assay that allows for the comparison of healthy motility and altered motility was developed. Using the intestinal transit assay that I developed with other lab members, I found that it takes approximately four hours for nine days post fertilization (dpf) larval zebrafish to empty their intestinal bulb when kept under normal conditions. Using trans-cinnamaldehyde as a trpa1a agonist, I was able to determine that activation of trpa1a increased the intestinal transit rate in 9 dpf zebrafish. In the absence of other nutrients and using Nile red as a tracer, trans-cinnamaldehyde was sufficient to increase the intestinal transit rate. In future studies, the Kinkel lab aims to spatiotemporally map kita, ano1, trpa1a, and trpa1b to gain a better understanding of the ion channels and receptors that regulate proper intestinal motility. The zebrafish model may provide potential targets for therapeutics for various intestinal motility disorders
