Zebrafish as a model to explore cell metabolism

• The zebrafish model represents a cost-effective and fast system to study cell metabolism during development and in the adult.
• Zebrafish embryos can be used to perform metabolomic and fluxomic analyses.
• Chemical screening in zebrafish embryos modeling inborn error of metabolism might help identify new and alternative therapies in metabolic disorders.

Cell metabolism plays a key role in many essential biological processes. The recent availability of novel technologies and organisms to model cell metabolism in vivo is expanding current knowledge of cell metabolism. In this context, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) is emerging as a valuable model system to learn about the metabolic routes critical for cellular homeostasis. Here, the most recent methods and studies on cell metabolism are summarized, which support the overall value for the zebrafish model system not only to study metabolism but also metabolic disease states. It is envisioned that this small vertebrate system will help in the understanding of pathogenesis for numerous metabolic-related disorders in humans and in the identification of their therapeutic treatments.