Research: X. tropicalis
Xenopus tropicalis
The Western clawed frog Xenopus tropicalis is a very useful organism for genetic screening, possessing advantages such as a diploid genome and rapid generation time; additionally, the closely related X. laevis has been used to elucidate many developmental mechanisms. One method of uncovering novel recessive mutations is cold shock-induced gynogenesis. Females of the F1 generation of randomly mutagenized X. tropicalis were used to produce haploid embryos. Gynogenetic embryos were produced by inhibiting the completion of meiosis in these haploids; the resulting diploids thus bear two copies of the maternal genome. We uncovered and described three novel developmental mutant phenotypes. Characterizing these phenotypes is an important first step in identifying and cloning the genes responsible. This work thus adds to the burgeoning body of knowledge about the Xenopus tropicalis genome.
This work is in collaboration with the Grainger Lab at the University of Virginia.