Genotyping mice by DNA based methods is both laborious and costly. As an alternative, we systematically examined fluorescent proteins expressed in the lens as transgenic markers for mice. A set of eye markers has been selected such that double and triple transgenic animals can be visually identified and that fluorescence intensity in the eyes can be used to distinguish heterozygous from homozyg...

This document reviews the development of such animals by selection and inbreeding, defines basic genetic terms and concepts, and describes how breeders prevent and detect genetic contamination. It ends with an introduction to genetic quality control, including a brief discussion of colony management. Genetic monitoring, the main component of quality control, is detailed in the 1992 document, Pa...

Amy R. Dunn, Kristen A. Stout, Minagi Ozawa, Kelly M. Lohr, Alison I. Bernstein, Yingjie Li, Minzheng Wang, Carmelo Sgobio, Namratha Sastry, Huaibin Cai, W. Michael Caudle, and Gary W. Miller* 1. Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. 2. Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. 3. Transgenics Section, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, ...

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) belongs to the neurotrophin family of neuronal cell survival and differentiation factors but is thought to be involved in neuronal cell proliferation and myelination as well. To explore the role of BDNF in vivo, we employed the intermediate pituitary melanotrope cells of the amphibian Xenopus laevis as a model system. These cells mediate background adapt...

This study evaluates the effects of biotechnological procedures involved in the process of microinjection-induced transgenesis in the mouse by comparing four groups of C57BL/6 mice that differ in their transgenic background (transgenics after integration of a functional corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) gene construct, transgenics after integration of a nonfunctional CRF gene construct, nont...

Polyamines play pivotal roles in plant defense to environmental stresses. However, stress tolerance of genetically engineered plants for polyamine biosynthesis has been little examined so far. We cloned spermidine synthase cDNA from Cucurbita ficifolia and the gene was introduced to Arabidopsis thaliana under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. The transgene was stably int...

Genetic and pharmacological evidence suggests that overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is critical for epithelial carcinogenesis and provides a major target for cancer chemoprevention by nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. Transgenic mouse lines with keratin 5 promoter-driven COX-2 overexpression in basal epidermal cells exhibit a preneoplastic skin phenotype. As shown here, this phenot...