Generation of Transgenic Xenopus laevis: III. Sperm Nuclear Transplantation
- 1 The Healing Foundation Centre, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, United Kingdom
- 2 Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
- ↵3Corresponding author (enrique.amaya{at}manchester.ac.uk)
INTRODUCTION
Manipulating genes specifically during later stages of amphibian embryonic development requires fine control over the time and place of expression. These protocols describe an efficient nuclear-transplantation-based method of transgenesis developed for Xenopus laevis. The approach enables stable expression of cloned gene products in Xenopus embryos. The procedure is based on restriction-enzyme-mediated integration (REMI) and can be divided into three parts: (I) high-speed preparation of egg extracts, (II) sperm nuclei preparation, and (III) nuclear transplantation. This protocol describes a method for the nuclear transplantation in Xenopus laevis. Permeabilized sperm nuclei are incubated briefly with linearized plasmid DNA, after which egg extract and a small amount of restriction enzyme are added. The egg extract partially decondenses the chromosomes, and the restriction enzyme stimulates recombination by creating double-strand breaks, facilitating integration of DNA into the genome. Diluted nuclei are transplanted into unfertilized eggs. Because the transgene integrates into the genome prior to fertilization, the resulting transgenic embryos are not chimeric and there is no need to breed to the next generation in order to obtain nonmosaic transgenic animals.
