Kimberly DobrinskiDesai, Shivani2021-05-182021-05-182021-05Desai, Shivani. “Copy Number Variation and Obesity in Danio Rerio.” Honors Program, The University of Tampa, 2021. https://doi.org/10.48497/N29J-C389.http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11868/1700Recommended Citation: Desai, Shivani. “Copy Number Variation and Obesity in Danio Rerio.” Honors Program, The University of Tampa, 2021. https://doi.org/10.48497/N29J-C389.Obesity is a worldwide epidemic resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. It is proposed here that overfeeding Danio rerio, (zebrafish), will provide an effective model for studying human obesity. This hypothesis is based on the knowledge of the genetic and structural commonalities between zebrafish and humans that have allowed zebrafish to be used for other types of human research. Fish were fed normal and high fat diets over 8 weeks and Body Mass Indexes were analyzed using ANOVA (p value = 1.04e-11) and a Post-hoc Tukey Test. Results indicated the BMIs from fish fed high-fat diets were statistically significant from each other. Furthermore, histological analysis via the oil red stain indicated that Danio rerio fed on the high fat diet contained a greater number and larger sized adipocytes which are a marker of increased adipose tissue. It is also proposed that an increase in Body Mass Index (BMI) will lead to changes in the genome of the fish, Copy Number Variance (CNV’s), measured by DNA and RNA sequencing analysis. CNV’s are associated with obesity related diseases such as Hepatic Steatosis and Type 2 Diabetes.en-USThesishttps://doi.org/10.48497/n29j-c389