A sensation for inflation: initial swim bladder inflation in larval zebrafish is mediated by the mechanosensory lateral line

Larval zebrafish achieve neutral buoyancy by swimming up to the surface and taking in air through their mouths to inflate their swim bladders. We define this behavior as ‘surfacing’. Little is known about the sensory basis for this underappreciated behavior of larval fish. A strong candidate is the mechanosensory lateral line, a hair cell-based sensory system that detects hydrodynamic information from sources such as water currents, predators, prey and surface waves. However, a role for the lateral line in mediating initial inflation of the swim bladder has not been reported. To explore the connection between the lateral line and surfacing, we used a genetic mutant (lhfpl5b(−/−)) that renders the zebrafish lateral line insensitive to mechanical stimuli. We observed that approximately half of these lateral line mutants over-inflate their swim bladders during initial inflation and become positively buoyant. Thus, we hypothesized that larval zebrafish use their lateral line to moderate interactions with the air–water interface during surfacing to regulate swim bladder inflation. To test the hypothesis that lateral line defects are responsible for swim bladder over-inflation, we showed that exogenous air is required for the hyperinflation phenotype and transgenic rescue of hair cell function restores normal inflation. We also found that chemical ablation of anterior lateral line hair cells in wild-type larvae causes hyperinflation. Furthermore, we show that manipulation of lateral line sensory information results in abnormal inflation. Finally, we report spatial and temporal differences in the surfacing behavior between wild-type and lateral line mutant larvae. In summary, we propose a novel sensory basis for achieving neutral buoyancy where larval zebrafish use their lateral line to sense the air–water interface and regulate initial swim bladder inflation.