A microarray to characterize the immune response of adult zebrafish to a low dose Mycobacterium marinum infection

Zebrafish Mycobacterium marinum infection has been widely used to model human tuberculosis because these two diseases share common features, e.g. latency, granuloma formation and reactivation. Here we infected adult zebrafish with a low dose of M. marinum, which usually leads to a chronic infection. At 14 days post infection we performed microarray analysis to characterize the immune response against this infection. Analysis was done using total RNA extracted from the abdominal organs of zebrafish. Our aim was to find novel genes underlying host defense mechanisms against M. marinum infection in zebrafish, and thus to produce novel information that is valuable when developing new treatments for human tuberculosis. Identification of the up- and downregulated genes in Mycobacterium marinum infection in zebrafish. 5 samples were analyzed, 2 samples (biological replicates) collected from wild-type AB zebrafish infected with Mycobacterium marinum and 3 from PBS injected zebrafish.