Inducible gene expression in transient transgenic Xenopus embryos

Methods Mol Biol. 2008:469:431-49. doi: 10.1007/978-1-59745-249_27.

Abstract

Xenopus laevis has for many years been successfully used to study Wnt signaling during early development. However, because loss of function and gain of function experiments generally involve injecting RNA, DNA, or morpholinos into early embryos (1- to 32-cell), major phenotypes are often observed before the embryo has reached later stages of development. The combined use of transgenics and a heat shock inducible system has overcome these problems and enables investigations of Wnt signaling at later stages of Xenopus embryonic development, including organogenesis.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
  • Gene Transfer Techniques*
  • Heat-Shock Proteins / genetics
  • Heat-Shock Proteins / metabolism
  • Nuclear Transfer Techniques
  • Oocytes / chemistry
  • Oocytes / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction / physiology
  • Transgenes
  • Wnt Proteins / genetics
  • Wnt Proteins / metabolism
  • Xenopus Proteins / genetics
  • Xenopus Proteins / metabolism
  • Xenopus laevis / embryology*
  • Xenopus laevis / genetics*
  • Xenopus laevis / metabolism

Substances

  • Heat-Shock Proteins
  • Wnt Proteins
  • Xenopus Proteins