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Transgenic Xenopus laevis embryos can be generated using ϕC31 integrase
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Transgenic Xenopus laevis embryos can be generated using ϕC31 integrase

Bryan G Allen and Daniel L Weeks
Nature methods, Vol.2(12), pp.975-979
12/2005
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth814
PMCID: PMC3552317
PMID: 16299484

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Abstract

Phage ϕC31 encodes an integrase that can mediate the insertion of extrachromosomal DNA into genomic DNA 1 . Here we show ϕC31 integrase can be used to generate transgenic Xenopus laevis embryos. mRNA encoding integrase was co-injected with a reporter plasmid containing a CMV promoter driven GFP into one cell embryos. The reporter plasmid was integrated into the genome. GFP expression, though robust, was in a limited number of tissues and varied among the embryos analyzed. We attributed this restriction to transcriptional silencing by chromosome position effects. Modification of the reporter plasmid by bracketing the CMV-GFP region with tandem copies of the chicken β-globin 5′ HS4 insulator 2 relieved position effects. Embryos transgenic with insulated CMV-GFP expressed GFP uniformly. Tissue specific expression was achieved when the CMV promoter was replaced with a 551 base-pair minimal gamma crystallin lens promoter from Xenopus. Embryos transgenic with this plasmid had GFP expression limited to the lens of the eye. We observed that about a third of embryos assayed one week after fertilization were transgenic. These experiments demonstrate that the integration of insulated gene sequences using ϕC31 integrase can be used to efficiently create transgenic embryos in Xenopus laevis and may increase the practical use of ϕC31 integrase in other systems as well.

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