gamma-Aminobutyric acid or GABA is the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. The role of GABA is to reduce excitability of neurons. Two types of GABA receptor exist in the nervous system GABAA and GABAB receptors. GABAA receptors are ligand activated ion channels and GABAB receptors are G-protein coupled receptors that open and close channels via intermediary G proteins. The flow of negatively charged Chloride ions into a neuron or positively charged potassium ions out of a neuron leads to hyperpolarozation of the cell.


Antibodies that label GABA-ergic neurons

Transgenic lines that label GABA-ergic neurons

Tg(gad1b:GFP) (Satou et al., 2013) can be viewed at ZBB>aliases>Neurotransmitters>GABAergic.

Probes that label GABA-ergic neurons

Key Publications

Satou, C., Kimura, Y., Hirata, H., Suster, M.L., Kawakami, K., and Higashijima, S. (2013)
Transgenic tools to characterize neuronal properties of discrete populations of zebrafish neurons. Development (Cambridge, England). 140(18):3927-3931.

Higashijima, S.I., Mandel, G., and Fetcho, J.R. (2004)
Distribution of prospective glutamatergic, glycinergic, and GABAergic neurons in embryonic and larval zebrafish.
The Journal of comparative neurology. 480(1):1-18.

Mueller, T., Wullimann, M.F., and Guo, S. (2008)
Early teleostean basal ganglia development visualized by Zebrafish Dlx2a, Lhx6, Lhx7, Tbr2 (eomesa), and GAD67 gene expression.
The Journal of comparative neurology. 507(2):1245-1257.

Filippi, A., Mueller, T., and Driever, W. (2014)
Vglut2 and gad expression reveal distinct patterns of dual GABAergic versus glutamatergic cotransmitter phenotypes of dopaminergic and noradrenergic neurons in the zebrafish brain.
The Journal of comparative neurology. 522(9):2019-37.

Mueller, T., and Guo, S. (2009)
The distribution of GAD67-mRNA in the adult zebrafish (teleost) forebrain reveals a prosomeric pattern and suggests previously unidentified homologies to tetrapods.
The Journal of comparative neurology. 516(6):553-568.

Solek, C.M., Feng, S., Perin, S., Weinschutz Mendes, H.C., Ekker, M. (2017)
Lineage tracing of dlx1a/2a and dlx5a/6a expressing cells in the developing zebrafish brain.
Developmental Biology. 427(1):131-147.

Jusuf, P.R., Almeida, A.D., Randlett, O., Joubin, K., Poggi, L., and Harris, W.A. (2011)
Origin and determination of inhibitory cell lineages in the vertebrate retina.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 31(7):2549-2562.

Monesson-Olson, B., McClain, J.J., Case, A.E., Dorman, H.E., Turkewitz, D.R., Steiner, A.B., Downes, G.B. (2018) Expression of the eight GABAA receptor α subunits in the developing zebrafish central nervous system.
PLoS One. 13:e0196083.

Tabor, R., Yaksi, E., and Friedrich, R.W. (2008)
Multiple functions of GABA(A) and GABA(B) receptors during pattern processing in the zebrafish olfactory bulb.
The European journal of neuroscience. 28(1):117-127.