Abstract: Cells have a built-in death program through the regulation of genes. Apoptosis (programmed cell death) plays a very important role in the development of the vertebrate embryo. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has become a useful and ideal model in molecular developmental biology for in vivo study on the function of apoptosis in morphogenesis, sex differentiation and so on, and has already been paid more and more attention. At present, there has been much work on apoptotic pathway in zebrafish development. Caspases and other apoptotic regulatory genes have been cloned successfully, and transgenic zebrafish embryo that was induced to generate apoptosis in vivo, was used to study apoptotic signal pathway and embryo’s abnormal changes in morphogenesis. Transgenic zebrafish has provided a powerful tool for illuminating the interaction between apoptotic regulatory genes and vertebrate development.