• Title/Summary/Keyword: Microinjection

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Quick Detection of Firefly Luciferase Gene Expression in Live Developing Bovine Embryos by Photoncounting

  • Nakamura, A.;Okumura, J.;Muramatsu, T.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.11 no.5
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    • pp.498-502
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    • 1998
  • The present study was designed, fIrst to develop the new methodology to measure the bioluminescence activity easily in live developing bovine embryos by photoncounting, and secondly to compare the expression efficiency of four luciferase reporter genes in bovine embryos at four- to 16-cell stages. In experiment 1, equimolar pSVlacZ and pSVEluc were microinjected into the pronucleus of fertilized bovine oocytes. At 2 days after micro injection, bioluminescence activity of these embryos was measured by photoncounting with a luminometer for 1 min, and lacZ gene expression in the same embryos was assayed by X-gal staining. All the luciferase-positive oocytes showed some bacterial ${\beta}$-galactosidase activity irrespective of the intensity. In experiment 2, four firefly luciferase genes (pTKEluc, pTK6WEluc, pSVEluc and pMiwluc) were introduced by micro injection, and the injected embryos were cultured for the following 2 days. Detection of the luciferase gene expression was done by photoncounting at 5 to 55 min. Over the measurement period, the luciferase activity was almost constant irrespective of the transgenes microinjected. The luciferase activity and expression efficiency at 2 days after microinjection were not significantly affected by the difference in the microinjected transgenes. The present results demonstrated that the bioluminescence activity in live developing bovine embryos could be measured quickly by photoncounting.

Knockout of Myostatin by Zinc-finger Nuclease in Sheep Fibroblasts and Embryos

  • Zhang, Xuemei;Wang, Liqin;Wu, Yangsheng;Li, Wenrong;An, Jing;Zhang, Fuchun;Liu, Mingjun
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.29 no.10
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    • pp.1500-1507
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    • 2016
  • Myostatin (MSTN) can negatively regulate the growth and development of skeletal muscle, and natural mutations can cause "double-muscling" trait in animals. In order to block the inhibiting effect of MSTN on muscle growth, we transferred zinc-finger nucleases (ZFN) which targeted sheep MSTN gene into cultured fibroblasts. Gene targeted colonies were isolated from transfected fibroblasts by serial dilution culture and screened by sequencing. Two colonies were identified with mono-allele mutation and one colony with bi-allelic deletion. Further, we introduced the MSTN-ZFN mRNA into sheep embryos by microinjection. Thirteen of thirty-seven parthenogenetic embryos were targeted by ZFN, with the efficiency of 35%. Our work established the technical foundation for generation of MSTN gene editing sheep by somatic cloning and microinjection ZFN into embryos.

Molecular Characterization of Cytoskeletal Beta-Actin and its Promoter in the Javanese Ricefish Oryzias javanicus

  • Lee, Sang Yoon;Kim, Dong Soo;Nam, Yoon Kwon
    • Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.317-324
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    • 2012
  • We characterized the cytoskeletal beta-actin (${\beta}$-ACT) gene (actb) and its 5'-upstream regulatory region in the Javanese ricefish Oryzias javanicus. The gene and protein structures were deduced from amino acid sequences of the actb gene and conserved in the teleost lineage. The O. javanicus actb gene has common transcription factor binding motifs in its regulatory region found in teleostean orthologues. Following quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, actb gene transcripts were detected in all tissues examined; however, the basal expression levels were different. During early development, O. javanicus actb mRNA levels showed a gradual increase and peaked between late somitogenesis and the heartbeat stage. Microinjection of O. javanicus embryos with the actb gene promoter-driven red fluorescent protein (RFP) gene reporter vector showed a ubiquitous distribution of RFP signals, although most exhibited a mosaic pattern of transgene expression. A small number of microinjected embryos displayed a wide distribution of RFP signals over their entire body, which resembled the expression pattern of endogenous actb. Data from this study provide a basis to develop a transgenic system with ubiquitous expression of foreign genes in O. javanicus.

Genomic Organization, Intronic Duplications, and Promoter Characteristics of the Fast Skeletal Myosin Light Chain-2 Gene (mlc2f) from Javanese Ricefish Oryzias javanicus

  • Lee, Sang Yoon;Kim, Dong Soo;Nam, Yoon Kwon
    • Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.325-335
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    • 2012
  • The present study characterized the fast skeletal myosin light chain-2 gene (mlc2f) in the euryhaline Javanese ricefish (Oryzias javanicus: Beloniformes). Coding nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of Javanese ricefish mlc2f were well conserved in the vertebrate lineage. Javanese ricefish mlc2f showed a typical seven-exon structure, and its promoter exhibited transcription factor binding motifs common to most muscle-specific genes. However, Javanese ricefish mlc2f also displayed tandem duplications of intronic sequences in both intron 1 and intron 3. Based on quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, the mlc2f transcripts were highly predominant in skeletal muscles of adults and were differentially modulated during embryonic development. Microinjection of the mlc2f promoter-driven red fluorescent protein (RFP) reporter construct successfully exhibited heterologous expression of the fluorescent reporter, primarily in muscular areas of hatchlings, although the distribution pattern of RFP signals was not uniform due to the mosaic nature of the introduced transgene. Data from this study indicate that the Javanese ricefish mlc2f gene has undergone "intra-intronic" duplication events in a species-specific manner and that the mlc2f regulator may also be useful in heterologous expression assays of the skeletal muscles of this species.

IN VIVO DEVELOPMENT AND MICROINJECTION OF RABBIT ZYGOTES

  • Ju, J.C.;Cheng, S.P.;Tarng, P.C.;Choo, K.B.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.4 no.1
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    • pp.73-78
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    • 1991
  • Sixty-one 5-11 month-old California, Chinchilla and New Zealand White rabbit were employed in this investigation. Thirty-three does were superovulated by injecting FSH/HCG subcutaneously or intravenously and then sacrificed at different hours after mating. The ova were collected from the fallopian tubes with Ham's F-10 medium supplemented with 0.4% bovine serum albumin (BSA) and 1% pregnant rabbit serum (PRS). Embryos were examined under an inverted DIC microscopy for observing the stage of development. We have found that the fertilized ova formed pronuclei at 19 - 20 hr postcoitus. Approximately at 26, 64 - 78 and 84 - 88 hr after mating, the fertilized ova cleaved further to 2-cell, morulae and blastocyst stage respectively. Another 28 does were allocated to the gene transfer study. Fourteen of the 28 does were sacrificed at 19 - 20 hr to donate the pronuclear stage ova for gene injection. The other 14 does were induced to pseudopreganacy by injection of 100 IU HCG intravenous as recipients. Four hundreds and seventeen ova were injected totally and 212 gene injected zygotes were transferred into the recipient oviducts. Five recipients became pregnant and 10 fetuses were obtained. Eight of the 10 fetuses were analysed for gene incorporation, but none of them were transgenic.

Neuroanatomical Comparative Studies on the Motor and Sensory Neurons Associated with Cheonji(PC1) in the Rats (흰쥐에서 천지(PC1)와 관련된 운동신경과 감각신경의 분포영역에 대한 신경해부학적 연구)

  • Lee, Sun-Ho;Lee, Chang-Hyun;Lee, Sang-Ryong
    • Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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    • v.32 no.3
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    • pp.136-143
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    • 2015
  • This study was performed to comparative investigate the distribution of primary sensory and motor neurons associated with Cheonji(PC1) acupoint by using neural tracing technique. A total 4 SD rats were used in the present study. After anesthesia, the rats received microinjection of $6{\mu}l$ of cholera toxin B subunit(CTB) into the corresponding sites of the acupoints Cheonji(PC1) in the human body for observing the distribution of the related primary sensory neurons in dorsal root ganglia(DRGs) and motor neurons in the spinal cord(C3~T4) and sympathetic ganglia. Three days after the microinjection, the rats were anesthetized and transcardially perfused saline and 4% paraformaldehyde, followed by routine section of the DRGs, sympathetic chain ganglia(SCGs) and spinal cord. Labeled neurons and nerve fibers were detected by immunohistochemical method and observed by light microscope equipped with a digital camera. The labeled neurons were recorded and counted. From this research, the distribution of primary sensory and motor neurons associated with Cheonji(PC1) acupoints were concluded as follows. Muscle meridian related Cheonji(PC1) are controlled by spinal segments of C5~T1, C6~T4, respectively.