During development, the proper specification and migration of GABAergic interneurons is essential to the establishment of appropriate synaptic connections. Abnormal establishment of these neuronal types are often related to neurological and behavioral disorders. The Dlx homeobox gene family and the transcription factors they encode are involved in the proper specification of GABAergic interneurons in vertebrates. In the forebrain, the expression patterns of the dlx1a/dlx2a and of the dlx5a/dlx6a bigene clusters presents extensive overlaps and the functional specificity of the four dlx paralogs still remains elusive. The purpose of this research is to trace the lineage of dlx-expressing cells in the zebrafish brain, from early development to adulthood, and to compare the fate of cells expressing genes from the dlx1a/dlx2a and dlx5a/dlx6a clusters. We have produced a transgenic line that express the CreERT2 recombinase under the control of dlx1a/2a or dlx5a/6a regulatory sequences and bred them with zebrafish that express a floxed GFP gene followed by the mCherry gene under the control of an ubiquitin promoter. These double transgenic lines allow us to permanently label dlx-expressing cells by introducing tamoxifen in the embryo medium and to observe the tracing of these cells on a time-related manner at different time points during early stages of development. We followed the migration and differentiation of these cells throughout the life of the zebrafish. Our findings indicate that, as predicted, the majority of labeled cells give rise to GABAergic neurons, although a small number of cells in the ventral telencephalic area are not immunoreactive for GABA or neuronal markers. The dlx1a/dlx2a-expressing cells labeled at 24 hours post-fertilization (hpf) seem to give rise to a relatively larger number of mCherry-positive cells when examined in older animals, compared to similar labeling of dlx5a/dlx6a fish. Furthermore, the dlx1a/dlx2a-labeled cells give a higher proportion of cells that remain close to the neurogenic zones, compared to dlx5a/dlx6a-labeled cells. Interestingly, a number of dlx5a/6a-expressing cells, labeled at 5 dpf, give rise to a large number of cells that populate the dorsal telencephalon, the periventricular grey zone and the hypothalamus, something that is not seen with dlx1a/2a-labeled cells nor when induction of dx5a/6a-driven Cre is performed earlier. This lineage tracing system can also be used to characterize the development of new GABAergic neurons in adult zebrafish both in conditions of homeostasis and during regeneration following injury. Supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.